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There are a plethora of online guides to DIY cheese-making but I'm wondering if anyone on Hacker News has any specific books or websites they would recommend fo

There are a plethora of online guides to DIY cheese-making but I'm wondering if anyone on Hacker News has any specific books or websites they would recommend for the first time cheese-maker. I appreciate the guidance.

poulsbohemian 8y ago
Washington state university (go cougs!) has an excellent short course for the beginner. I believe the University of Wisconsin has occasional classes as well. Dave at Dairy Connection is a wonderful guy and a great source for supplies and connections: http://www.dairyconnection.com http://www.dairyconnection.com Also, see cheesemaking.com
poulsbohemian 8y ago
My home setup is a hotel buffet warmer with a modifier temperature controller for my vat, plus a small dorm fridge with a temp controller for my “cave”. Pretty good scaled down approximation.
avita1 8y ago
I only just started, but Gavin Webber's youtube channel [1] is a great demonstration for the techniques. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE31MqUy6nIMJ_f8y4R3_AA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE31MqUy6nIMJ_f8y4R3_AA
mikekchar 8y ago
I'm a very novice cheese maker. I also recommend watching Gavin Webber's youtube videos to understand the basics. He's probably not the best cheese maker in the world, but he's refreshingly honest about his mistakes and he shows videos of where things have gone wrong and what he thinks he should have done differently. One thing's for sure, though. He dominates cheese making videos on you tube :-) But other than that, I think the best thing is just to make cheese. My wife is in charge of the credit card in our family and when I told her I wanted to make cheese, she wisely suggested that I see what I could do with things I could find at the grocery store -- just to see if I would still be interested after 3 days (she knows me well!) I started with some fresh cheeses -- mostly ricotta. I learned why UHT milk can't be used for anything other than ricotta. I experimented trying to make cheese from yogurt and discovered why that doesn't work. I did many google searches about how rennet works and how acid curds are formed (I believe it is the University of Wisconsin that has a really good page somewhere about how casein micelles knit together in a variety of situations, but I can't seem to find the page right now). In the end I discovered that you can make a hard cheese by inoculating milk with yogurt (thermophilic culture), bringing the temp to 42C, letting it ripen for 40 minutes, then slowly adding citric acid while stirring slowly with a whisk. The resulting curd will melt slightly (!) and you can ladle that into a camembert hoop (which I fashioned by cutting the ends off of a pet bottle and poking holes in the side with an awl). If you drain for 4 hours, flipping every hour, it will form a delicate cheese that you can brine. It's essentially a lactic cheese (even though the final curd is made with citric acid, not rennet). I let mine age in my regular refrigerator and it eventually formed a rind. I'm still waiting to taste it, but I've done a couple of cheeses that way and eaten them fresh and they were delicious (tart, crumbly, like a Caerphilly or Wendsleydale). I've also tried making a fresh cheese with a butter milk culture (mesophilic) with a washed curd. It was also delicious, but I'm not sure that washing the curd actually did anything -- it's already too acidic at that point. Anyway, I feel like it's almost like playing a game without reading the spoilers :-) It's super fun just experimenting and by and large you can make a cheese of some description. I need to wait until winter to do some more "normal" cheeses, but my experiments have whetted my appetite (and I've unlocked the "you can use the credit card" achievement).
- tomcam 8y ago
  You ought to throw your hat into the YouTube cheesemaking ring!
spc476 8y ago
I don't know if this is what you need, but Gavin Webber makes videos of him making various types of cheeses (https://www.youtube.com/user/greeningofgavin/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/greeningofgavin/videos).
ofrzeta 8y ago
In this (cheese-making) blog there's a link to a PDF of Practical Cheddar Cheese-making by Dora Saker: https://handyface.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/practical-cheddar-cheese-making-dora-saker-pdf/ https://handyface.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/practical-cheddar...

poulsbohemian 8y ago

Washington state university (go cougs!) has an excellent short course for the beginner. I believe the University of Wisconsin has occasional classes as well. Dave at Dairy Connection is a wonderful guy and a great source for supplies and connections: http://www.dairyconnection.com http://www.dairyconnection.com Also, see cheesemaking.com

poulsbohemian 8y ago

My home setup is a hotel buffet warmer with a modifier temperature controller for my vat, plus a small dorm fridge with a temp controller for my “cave”. Pretty good scaled down approximation.

avita1 8y ago

I only just started, but Gavin Webber's youtube channel [1] is a great demonstration for the techniques. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE31MqUy6nIMJ_f8y4R3_AA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE31MqUy6nIMJ_f8y4R3_AA

mikekchar 8y ago

I'm a very novice cheese maker. I also recommend watching Gavin Webber's youtube videos to understand the basics. He's probably not the best cheese maker in the world, but he's refreshingly honest about his mistakes and he shows videos of where things have gone wrong and what he thinks he should have done differently. One thing's for sure, though. He dominates cheese making videos on you tube :-) But other than that, I think the best thing is just to make cheese. My wife is in charge of the credit card in our family and when I told her I wanted to make cheese, she wisely suggested that I see what I could do with things I could find at the grocery store -- just to see if I would still be interested after 3 days (she knows me well!) I started with some fresh cheeses -- mostly ricotta. I learned why UHT milk can't be used for anything other than ricotta. I experimented trying to make cheese from yogurt and discovered why that doesn't work. I did many google searches about how rennet works and how acid curds are formed (I believe it is the University of Wisconsin that has a really good page somewhere about how casein micelles knit together in a variety of situations, but I can't seem to find the page right now). In the end I discovered that you can make a hard cheese by inoculating milk with yogurt (thermophilic culture), bringing the temp to 42C, letting it ripen for 40 minutes, then slowly adding citric acid while stirring slowly with a whisk. The resulting curd will melt slightly (!) and you can ladle that into a camembert hoop (which I fashioned by cutting the ends off of a pet bottle and poking holes in the side with an awl). If you drain for 4 hours, flipping every hour, it will form a delicate cheese that you can brine. It's essentially a lactic cheese (even though the final curd is made with citric acid, not rennet). I let mine age in my regular refrigerator and it eventually formed a rind. I'm still waiting to taste it, but I've done a couple of cheeses that way and eaten them fresh and they were delicious (tart, crumbly, like a Caerphilly or Wendsleydale). I've also tried making a fresh cheese with a butter milk culture (mesophilic) with a washed curd. It was also delicious, but I'm not sure that washing the curd actually did anything -- it's already too acidic at that point. Anyway, I feel like it's almost like playing a game without reading the spoilers :-) It's super fun just experimenting and by and large you can make a cheese of some description. I need to wait until winter to do some more "normal" cheeses, but my experiments have whetted my appetite (and I've unlocked the "you can use the credit card" achievement).

tomcam 8y ago
You ought to throw your hat into the YouTube cheesemaking ring!

spc476 8y ago

I don't know if this is what you need, but Gavin Webber makes videos of him making various types of cheeses (https://www.youtube.com/user/greeningofgavin/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/greeningofgavin/videos).

ofrzeta 8y ago

In this (cheese-making) blog there's a link to a PDF of Practical Cheddar Cheese-making by Dora Saker: https://handyface.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/practical-cheddar-cheese-making-dora-saker-pdf/ https://handyface.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/practical-cheddar...