Making your own cheese? Looking for a class....

Good afternoon. I've been wondering if there are any shops or schools in the Chicago area that offer classes in cheesemaking? I'm mainly interested in fresh mozzarella, hearing that with fresh curd and some heat resistant rubber gloves it's pretty easy to make. Or even with good milk and rennet, still not that difficult. But I hesitate to to just dive in without a little hands-on instruction.

Of course, if there were classes that involved other types of cheese, I definitely wouldn't say no.

I once took a class at Fox and Obel, we made fresh mozz. They did not supply us with heat resitant gloves, that would have been nice. You might want to call and ask them if they will ever have the class again.

Fox and Obel
401 E. Illinois
Chicago IL, 60611
312 410 7301

I have also been looking for a class like this lately.

Keep us updated if you find anything as I would also be interested in doing one.

However, a couple of days back I think it was the Chicagoist had mentioned a cheese class they had taken. I e-mailed the lady and she said she would assume she would be doing one in the fall. She mentioned if we could organize one in the meantime she would be willing to put one on. She said in the past they had a group of 7 that had organized it. I have two as of now on my end. Would it be just you?

I would be interested in attending a cheese making class. What exactly would it cover?

Off the top of my head I could provide 4 total. I think that brings us up to the right number!

Aceking -

Let me inquire and find out some of the details (price, number needed, length, cheeses/techniques covered, etc..)

I will post back to this thread!

J.R.

Also, the resources at the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company are great. I made several cheeses just on my own a couple years back using their instructions and ingredients. (They have plenty of kits available, as well, but I ordered a la carte). They're an absolutely wonderful company to deal with.

Do not be afraid to jump right in. It's really not all that difficult. I would start with something like a chevre or other fresh cheese first. The only difficult part of mozzarella is the stretching and "spinning" part, and getting the cheese to exactly the right pH and temperature so it all goes smoothly. That said, don't be put off by it. The instructions the New England Cheesmaking Supply Company gives are pretty much foolproof.

The Chopping Block is offering two fresh cheese making classes in August at their Merchandise Mart location.

www.thechoppingblock.net

I've taken classes at New England Cheesemaking and used their ingredients at home, on my own. I'd recommend purchasing their mozz kit and trying it yourself - it is remarkably easy. The class was fine - must say, a day-long seminar isn't really enough to get something great made but it was a start.

Definitely jump right in. Don't be intimidated - fresh cheese is a breeze. It is the aged stuff that gets tricky.

I am trying the jump in w/o a class approach using the mozzarella/ricotta 'kit' I ordered online.

Crappy results on my first attempt. Could be attributed to:
- I didn't choose a 'good' milk.
I used Whole Foods store brand Organic Whole Milk. Can anyone share a brand of milk that works well for a newbie??

- I didn't let the curds set long enough after adding the rennet
I had a custard texture but it may have been too loose when I cut the curds.

- I overheated the curds in the microwave
The texture of the curds looke better after the first 1 minute in the uwave than it did after the next 30 secs. When I checked the temp to see if it was ready to start stretching, it was lower than required (135) so I put it back in for another 30 secs. Came out looking worsER. Pretty sure this was the kiss of death.

Another thing I wonder about - While I cleaned my workspace/utensils, I didn't jump through hoops to sterilize everything. How much could that contribute?

The kit is for 30 batches - so gonna keep trying until I get something edible.

Hi Wendy!

Could you be more specific about your 'crap' result? I think your milk was probably fine-- I've made the quick moz from regular store milk too. Not letting it set long enough would mess up your yield-- was the whey cloudy? Did it yield a lot of ricotta? Microwaving too long would probably mess up the texture.

Jen

Pie-love wrote:Hi Wendy!

Could you be more specific about your 'crap' result? I think your milk was probably fine-- I've made the quick moz from regular store milk too. Not letting it set long enough would mess up your yield-- was the whey cloudy? Did it yield a lot of ricotta? Microwaving too long would probably mess up the texture.

Jen

Jen - thanks for the help.

Good to know that the milk isn't the issue. I'm trying to rule out the places I could have gone wrong ( so many, so many. )

The whey wasn't clear but I wouldn't say cloudy. (I struggling with the vernacular - Does any amount of opalescence = cloudy?) It did have some small 'floaty' bits. Maybe that is what you mean by yielding ricotta?

After the rennet/cutting, how delicate do you have to be about the stirring? How about when you drain the whey (before I put in the microwave)?

I'm pretty sure the extra 30 seconds of nuking is what doomed the project. Larger curds forming suddenly went back to the ricotta - or even smaller texture. I never got to the point where I could stretch because it fell apart rather than forming a mass.

wendy wrote:The whey wasn't clear but I wouldn't say cloudy. (I struggling with the vernacular - Does any amount of opalescence = cloudy?) It did have some small 'floaty' bits. Maybe that is what you mean by yielding ricotta?

After the rennet/cutting, how delicate do you have to be about the stirring? How about when you drain the whey (before I put in the microwave)?

I'm pretty sure the extra 30 seconds of nuking is what doomed the project. Larger curds forming suddenly went back to the ricotta - or even smaller texture. I never got to the point where I could stretch because it fell apart rather than forming a mass.

Hi Wendy--

About yielding ricotta, what I meant was that you can take the whey that you drained off the curds and make ricotta from that-- some more of the proteins are precipitated out into a fine ricotta curd. If your first set (with the custardy texture) was not firm enough, then a lot of protein is left in the whey and you can make a lot of ricotta.

I bet you are right about the extra 30 seconds of nuking.

Keep posting on your cheesemaking-- I am interested in how it's working for others. For myself, I haven't made the moz for a long time, but I should-- it would be great fun for my 5-year-old, plus she loves string cheese. I often make a fromage blanc with the cultures from New England Cheesemaking-- it is a soft cheese, cultured like yogurt and drained. Very tasty on bagels.

Someday I would like to graduate to hard cheese. I have tried a few-- my cheddar was sour and my monterey jack was blue-veined. I also tried the feta recipe from Fine Cooking (http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/homemade-feta.aspx) but it got suspiciously slimy in the brine, so I pitched it.

Anyone else making cheese out there?

Jen

It's been a long time since I've made mozzarella, but I wish I could be of some help to you rather than making a cry of my own for assistance.

This year I'm trying "Easter Cheese" for my mother-in-law's sake, and would appreciate any pointers out there. It is a custard cheese, and it seems the goal is to make a successful custard and, without breaking it, allow the milk curds to separate from the whey, taking with them the eggs and sugar. I've never heard of, much less made, something like this. Does someone have experience? Here is a fairly representative recipe, but there are as many variations as there are grandmothers.

Hi,

I have likely had hrudka, though I am not absolutely certain. I did find a Hrudka recipe with pictures that may help visualize the process.

I may make a batch to see for myself what this may be.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I have likely had hrudka, though I am not absolutely certain. I did find a Hrudka recipe with pictures that may help visualize the process.

I may make a batch to see for myself what this may be.

Regards,

That was, indeed, edifying! I will definitely post pictures.

Coincidentally, there are upcoming (demonstration - not hands on) classes at the Lincoln Square Chopping Block

Tuesday 04-13-2010, 7PM -9:30PM
Sunday 04-18-2010, 10AM - 12:30PM
Cost: $40.00
Seats available: 12

Yes! You can make fresh cheeses at home. We'll show you how and demonstrate some recipes for using your creations.
Ricotta Crostini with Grilled Asparagus; Fresh Mozzarella Roulade with Prosciutto and Basil; Curried Potato Paneer Rounds; Homemade Yogurt and Granola with Fresh Berries.
1-week cancellation policy.

4747 N. Lincoln
773.472.6700
http://www.thechoppingblock.net/

Hrudka update! I did, indeed, prepare it, and was surprised by how non-disgusting it turned out to be. Something about eating curdled custard doesn't appeal to me, in and of itself, but having tried it, I found it delightful. I cooked it over a double boiler and was far too conservative with the heat, but once I got it up to temperature the custard immediately congealed, and then the strangest thing happened. Just when I thought I had a pan of scrambled eggs on my hands, a thin, watery, grey liquid began appearing at the edges.

Yep, it looked a bit like brains floating in cerebro-spinal fluid (that's brain-juice in technical terms), but I cooked it until no more whey seemed to be exuding and drained the curds.

After hanging it overnight, it looked remarkably like cheese.

Upon cutting and tasting, we discovered no hint of cheesiness. Llama was by far the most accurate when he said it was somewhat like tamago egg custard sushi: mild, eggy, lightly sweet, and tender. Because both spiced, sweet recipes and plain abound, I took the middle road: lightly sweetened without spices. I felt it was safer for a first attempt. When my mother-in-law told her sister about it, however, Auntie suggested adding garlic (!) or bacon (!!) to make it more flavorful. I will certainly let you know how that goes! For now, though, I count it a success.

Hi,

I love it when something largely unknown comes to be.

Thanks for taking us along for the adventure. (if you can resize those images to 600x450, that will be great, too)

Happy Easter!
Regards,

A great place to take a class but a little drive is to Monroe, Wisconsin at Roth Kase. They offer cheesemaking classes at their education center. If you have never had any of their cheeses you are missing out....GREAT STUFF! I would just contact them directly as the website is not real informative about what they offer.

http://www.rothkase.com/aboutus.html

After my first failed attempt at the 30-minute (can't screw it up) mozzarella, I dug into online resources to see where I went wrong, what I should be looking for along the way, etc.

I checked the site where I bought the supplies and it contained some good troubleshooting information http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/24 ... rella.html. By blindly following the recipe, I'm pretty sure I didn't let the curd set long enough after adding the rennet (5 minutes) and probably overheated the curds in the microwave in an attempt to recover from the cottage cheese texture.

A video from Austin Homebrew, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5odBodQ0pZM
seemed a less fussy approach - no knife cutting of curds and longer resting time. My second attempt was a hybrid of the 2 approaches. Resting time was 20 minutes, but I followed the temperature/cutting technique. Success! I made mozzarella. Could have been shinier and more elastic, but it formed a ball and tasted right.

Today on my third try, FAIL. I followed procedure of attempt 2 but my results were again like attempt 1. I let the curds set for 15 minutes until they were well formed. After a 1 minute run in the microwave the curds were getting soft and looser (wrong direction.) After 30 more seconds, it was worse. Huh? I realized that attempt 2, I used a pyrex container and 1 & 3 I used a plastic bowl.

Back to the drawing board.

I'm glad I stumbled on this as I just started trying to make my own cheese. I'd love to attend a class but it's a bit of a hike for me now (I'm in TN).

I'm starting with lemon/vinegar cheese and will work my way up to rennet/starter cheeses. The links provided here are great!

Locally, I have Menonite farms that sell pasteurized milk (no homogonized) which is GREAT for cheesemaking. Unfortunately, I have to go mail order for rennet/starters.

Hi- This book on cheese making is available for free today only 12/9 on kindle on Amazon. I have been told that you can also download it to a tablet or your computer if you do not have a kindle. It got four stars, but there is only one review. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QL6 ... A6T2JUBBAF

Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- I just wanted to bump this up to remind people about the free kindle that is available on Amazon right now entitled An Easy Guide for Cheese Making at Home. I just checked, and it is still free, but that can change in a few hours.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QL6 ... A6T2JUBBAF