# My first cheese



## Nana (May 12, 2010)

I am so excited. I made my first cheese yesterday with 1 gallon of milk. It was the vinegar cheese and I added italian spices, garlic salt, and regular salt. It was so good and my 2 year old kept sneaking pieces out of the refrigerator. Last night I used the entire quart jar of it and made a huge pan of lasagna. It disappeared by this morning. My kids were up late snacking. Anyone have any suggestions for what kind I should try next.


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Yeah! Great work .

For the next one, how about a Halloumi? It's a frying cheese served like a steak with a side and whatever seasonings you want. It's a squeaky cheese that's made with only rennet and no starter. Pretty easy to make, but you do need rennet. I'll write up a howto if you're interested.


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## lazydaisy67 (Sep 7, 2009)

That's the first time I've read anything about squeaky cheese! My goat mentor made that all the time, but when she was showing me how to do it, it all still looked too advanced for me. I was only getting about a pint a day from my doe, so I wasn't really thinking about doing anything with my milk at that point. Sadly, my mentor has moved away and NOW I'm ready to try making stuff


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

That Halloumi squeaky cheese isn't like the one in the US, which is just fresh cheddar curds. It's an actual cheese that you boil and then slice and fry up and eat as a dish. I can help you make either or both


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## Poverty Knob Goats (Apr 13, 2010)

I Highly recomend Chevre! It is a very versitle cheese and very easy to make. 
We make it every day when we are milking!


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## Nana (May 12, 2010)

I would love to learn how to make Halloumi. I will get some rennet. I am going to wean the goatlings in one month and will have much more milk then. It sounds really good. I also plan to try Chevre. It is so fun to learn what you can make with the milk. Goats are great. :biggrin


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Here's my halloumi howto

http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?o...=36:fresh-cheese-rennet-coagulation&Itemid=60

It's a really basic rennet cheese that you press so it sets up and then boil the pressed cheese. Great grilled and brushed with some bbq sauce


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## Nana (May 12, 2010)

Thank you so much. I will let you know how it turns out when I make it :biggrin


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## Squires (Jul 23, 2010)

*Cheese bags -- draining or straining curds?*

I have a question about draining/straining cheese curds.

I'm used to using a square or double-square of muslin or real cheese cloth, and tieing up the ends, and leaving it in the collander. Big pain in the neck sometimes if I drop a corner. A bag sounds so much neater.

Where do you get bags for draining cheese? What do they cost? What amount of curds do they hold?

Does anybody make their own? What is an ideal shape and size for a bag for cheese curds?

In the recipe for Halloumi cheese posted earlier ("Re: My first cheese"), there is a mention of using a "paint strainer bag" to drain cheese. Are these the same as a muslin cheese bag, and if boiled or disinfected with chlorine, are they as good as real cheese cloth?

The recipe was: <http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?o...36:fresh-cheese-rennet-coagulation&Itemid=60>

Chris


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Hi Chris,

Paint bags are nylon and food safe, but they are only good for hard, cooked curd. They're not as fine as muslin and will not work for soft curd like blue, chevre, cream cheese, mascrapone, etc. So no, not exactly like a muslin bag.

If you want to drain soft curds, go to a fabric store and look for curtain cloth, the cheap, sheer synthetic kind, which you can make into a bag easily by taking an impulse sealer and just pressing the ends down and sealing them until they melt together.

If you don't have an impulse sealer, another good bag source is a beer supply store. They have hops bags that are $3 or so and will drain soft curds. They're like jelly strainers.

And one more good source, but this is for a huge bag, is to go to a dollar store and look for nylon laundry bags. They're pretty big though, will hold a 5-10 gal batch. Not bad for $1.

I use all of those methods, and prefer the custom plastic bags I fuse together out of cheap curtain fabric with an impulse sealer. I can get exact custom sizes that way to fit inside molds.


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## Squires (Jul 23, 2010)

What's an impulse sealer? Is this something from a crafts store or a kitchen store?

Chris


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

It's what you use for shrinkwrapping

http://cgi.ebay.com/Impulse-12-Seal...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255c08fa22

if you put two pieces of plastic cloth together, you can seal away until you have a curd bag exactly the size and shape you want.


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## Nana (May 12, 2010)

these are really good ideas. I have just been using flour sack type dishcloths.


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

Feta is a good one to try, does not take too long either and you can keep it in brine until you are ready to eat it...if you don't prefer it to be salty, then just put it in a water bath (water in a rubbermaid container) for 12 hours and it makes the feta nice and mild...but SOOOOO yummy!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Chris, the best are simple 100% cotton pillow cases, use them inside out so in case they fray or pull a thread it is not in your cheese. You can find really nice old 100% cotton ones, now most are polyester at resell shops, garage sales, and from any older ladies you know, we used to embroyider on them back in the day  Anna's Linen, carries egyptian cotton ones, more expensive but super nice. Vicki


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## Nana (May 12, 2010)

The fabric store will also have 100 percent cotton. I will look for a high thread count to get a fine filter.


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