CHEESE MAKING:

Various sites with
CHEESE MAKING SUPPLIERS
and
CHEESE MAKING BLOGS

Caprine Supply
[Caprine also has goat supplies]

Fias Co Farm

New England Cheese Making Supply Company

The Cheese Maker

Hoegger Supply Co.

Heinennellie

Frankhauser’s Cheese Page

Dairy Connection, Inc.

The Grape and Granary

Hoegger Supply Co.

Some of these sites I am still investigating. I’ll add more sites as I learn of them.

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With the availability to us now of high quality

SWEET CREAMY 100% GRASS FED RAW COWS MILK

I am going to venture into the arena of Cheese Making once again.

Here at this Tab I will post information on resources for
Cheese Making.
Where to purchase supplies, recipes, etc..and will keep a record within this tab of postings on cheese making once I begin the adventure into the wonderful world of all things CHEESE!
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Years ago, like ions ago I used to make cheese when my 4 oldest were in the lower grade school age and toddlerhood and we lived only about 80 miles from the Canadian border in Northern Minnesota.

My ventures in cheese making began with the purchase of 2 goat kids lovingly named Molly who was an Alpine and Spot who was a Nubian that literally was spotted all over with white spots on her brown coat by our 2 oldest, actually our oldest daughter. We purchased them from  Joe whom I’ll call the Goat Man here. He lived a few miles up the highway from us. We not only purchased these 2 young does, we bought goat milk from him. Only trouble was Joe really and I mean really loved his goats. He had this Buck that was literally as big as a horse. I had never seen nor since seen a buck as big as this one. It seemed like this buck had a place of honor on the acreage of this little farmstead. He was tethered or rather heavily chained up near the house and for his entertainment he spent the day bashing his horns all day long his very own big tire swing ( rather the whole tire ). This buck stunk not only in Rut but all the time. He was relentless with his stink. Joe loved this goat and hugged him, scratched him, you name it Joe had the scent of buck all over his clothing and it came into the house with him. His poor wife! But all I could think of was they had no sense of smell. I sure didn’t lack my sense of smell. It took all my being to keep from gagging in their presence.

I had my first lessons in cheese making from Joe’s wife in their kitchen.
Squeeky cheese – A very simple first timer cheese to make that is baked in the oven. Only problem with this cheese was it smelled like and tasted like the buck. It was unbearable. I really needed a clothes pin on my nose when having my first lesson at their home. We actually weren’t drinking the milk ourselves. I was feeding the goats milk to my infant son 3 months at the time who was loosing weight because my breast milk mysteriously dried up. I wasn’t sick or had any problems what so ever. It just suddenly shut off. So we turned to goats milk with a little blackstrap mollasses added to each bottle to keep him from getting plugged up that turned our little guy into a butterball in no time at all and he thrived well.
After my Squeeky cheese adventure I bought my first cheesemaking book and started making other cheeses.
Mozzarella
Cottage Cheese
Parmesan
were the 3 others that I tried out with good success. For some reason these 3 never had that buck flavor. I don’t know if it was the culture and curing time or what.
So this is my background in cheese making.

FINNISH SQUEAKY CHEESE:

I have not been able to find my original copy to may squeaky cheese so did some research and there seems to be variations on ingredients. But I do recall either one of these being the one I learned to make. I’ll give the 2 recipes I found. My guess is to try both and decide which you like better. This cheese is an easy cheese to do with kids. They’ll love the process and enjoy eating it.

Required equipment needed is only a big pot / thermometer / baking pan and of course the ingredients. This has got to be probably the easiest of cheeses to make aside from cottage cheese which is easy, also.

Recipe #1:

• 2 gallons whole milk ( Raw is best )
• 1/2 rennet tablet
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 2 teaspoons salt ( Redmond Real Salt if you have it or sea salt )
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar ( organic if you have it )

In large stainless pot heat the milk to lukewarm ( 90 degrees ) watch closely. Crush the rennet and dissolve in a small amount of cool water. Add this and the rest of the ingredients to the milk, stirring gently. Remove from heat. In 15 to 30 minutes the texture of the milk will change to a cottage cheese like texture. With a knife cut the curds with an X pattern into cottage cheese curds. Strain the curds in a stainless mesh strainer or cheesecloth – draining off the whey. Now spread the curds into a 9×13 pan or similar size, glass is better for this round or square makes no difference. Spread the curds evenly patting them into the pan.  Lightly sprinkle with a bit more salt. Place under broiler in oven and broil till lightly browned. Remove let cool some – then flip the cheese over, lightly salt some more and place back under broiler to finish browning. Watch the broiling carefully.

Recipe #2:

• 2 gallons whole milk ( Raw is best )
• 3 tablespoons sugar ( organic if you have it )
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons salt ( Redmond Real Salt if you have it or sea salt )
• 1 tsp. rennet ( I am assuming they are asking for liquid rennet here)

Steps are the same as above. Except in last step when you flip the cheese over to broil the other side – they say to lightly butter the cheese then place back under the broiler to finish browning.

Recipe #2 seems to be the most popular version looking at many other sites.

In Finland this is called leipäjuusto or juustoleipä. It’s more eaten like a dessert than anything else with a jam spread on top of each serving. Though it can be eaten just like is.

Here is a link to a photo I found on Flicker of Finnish Squeaky cheese served up as a dessert .  And here is some interesting history on the Finnish Cheese on Wikipedia.

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Raw Milk Mozzarella Cheese – Photos / recipe I followed are found here.

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I HAVE THE MILK, so all I need now is the supplies ( I don’t have anything I used years ago – so starting from scratch ). There are plans to build your own presses available for under $5.00 since presses can run you from $125.00 to $300.00 or more per press, that will save us a bundle of money just right there. My hubby is very handy in the crafting dept. so I know he’ll be able to make me one dandy press. Come to think of it I didn’t own a press back then, wonder whatever I did use…..plates and books are a good guess , maybe a brick or two, who knows!
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MORE TO COME…………………….