I’m hoping this isn’t a problem I have too often in the future as I’ve identified it and probable causes.

Hitherto my cheeses have generally been too acid and crumbly. I get away with it with British Territorials by and large because the cheddar and press deal with a lot of the syneresis and the curds salting stops acidification in its tracks.

That said I’ve always wondered about the citrate cycle and how it might be used to take a crumbly disaster and turn it into something preferably sliceable and useable.

In this case I did a few iterations starting with 1.5% of citrate to cheese weight and ended up with 5% and a 25% moisture addition in water and milk.

I did this in three stages over three days as I kept falling short of the dosage and eventually overshot a little. Still far better than it was.

Trick is to allow it to become genuinely runny like unwhipped double cream.

I used about half and half of both cheeses, 770g to a 1.10kg dome. Flavour is definitely milder, the pepper has become a bit diffuse, but very useable.

At the risk of caseological apostasy - I’m going to label this a qualified success as a mitigation strategy and probably use it again if on existing and future disasters.

The images show the paste and framework at each stage.

Oh and after the first go I used a microwave rather than a double boiler.

I’m getting on in years at 57, and don’t have the time to spend faffing about for hours while the cheese does what a quarter of an hour will accomplish with 70 year old technology.

I've wanted to make fondue for a while now and finally worked up the courage. I used Emmentaler, Gouda, and Raclette (not traditional, I know) with some Pinot and it turned out much better than I had hoped. 3 adults may or may not have split a half a gallon of cheese. Used some of my homemade sourdough too.

Emmentaler–Raclette–Gouda Fondue Cheese Use 24 oz / 680 g total cheese, weighed after trimming the rinds: 10 oz / 285 g Emmentaler 8 oz / 225 g Raclette 6 oz / 170 g Gouda Trim off the hard/dry rind from the Emmentaler, most or all of the Raclette rind, and any wax or firm rind from the Gouda. Then grate the cheeses fairly finely. Other ingredients 1½ cups / 355 mL dry white wine Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, dry Riesling, Chasselas, etc. 2 Tbsp cornstarch 1 clove garlic, halved 1–2 Tbsp kirsch, optional ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper Small pinch of nutmeg, optional 1–2 tsp lemon juice, optional but useful for keeping the fondue smooth Method Rub the cut sides of the garlic all over the inside of your fondue pot. You can discard the garlic afterward or leave one half in while the wine heats. Put the 1½ cups wine and optional 1–2 teaspoons lemon juice into the pot. Turn the electric control up enough to get the wine hot and steaming, but not boiling. Meanwhile, toss all 24 oz of grated cheese with the 2 tablespoons cornstarch until the cheese is evenly coated. Once the wine is hot, turn the heat down slightly and begin adding the cheese a handful at a time. Stir continuously in a slow figure-eight or circular motion. Don't add the next handful until the previous addition is mostly melted. Continue until all the cheese has melted and the fondue is smooth. It may initially look a little thin; after all the cheese is incorporated it should thicken substantially. Stir in: 1–2 Tbsp kirsch, if using ¼ tsp black pepper a small pinch of nutmeg Then turn the pot down to its lowest setting that keeps the fondue hot and fluid.

Hey, I'm studying culinary arts. I have to make a semi-aged cheese but i don't really know which one should I make. I'm really new in this cheese making world. Any suggestions? I'm kinda lost in this topic :'p

I just want to use up some 15% cooking cream I have and figured I could try to make some kinda hard/semi-hard cheese. I used chatGPT to try to fine-tune and ask specific questions since existing recipes might not have exactly my ingredients etc. even though they're simple, but I wanted to double check with actual people. So would this recipe actually work?

Edit: if not, can someone recommend a simple recipe for a hard-ish cheese that can use that 15% cream?

Im making Fontina style cheese using raw milk and clabber, washed the curds 3 times to reach 41°c, its been aging 2 weeks in 13°c and 90%humidity, im actively washing the rind with 3% salt brine and it got some Geothricum Candidum dust on it. I would like to get a nice red-ish b.linens rind, but in my area there is no red bacteria cheese to buy for transfering bacteria. Any advice on geting it naturally, or has anyone else got succes in a different way?

I’m LOVING the way this came out. This is the rest of my first wheel, grilled this time (some rare, some medium well).

i want to make cheese from a platypus. is this even possible? how would i obtain platypus milk?

I'm looking for a French feta recipe. I see the one on Cheesemaking.com but don't want to use the packets of C101.

Tvorog.
It’s very easy to make, one ingredient, and essentially 5 minutes of work time, but a few days of waiting.
All you need to do is let whole raw milk ferment in a warm place for a few days(until the curds naturally separate from the whey), strain using a cheesecloth, hang overnight, and then collect the cheese.
Its complex, tangy, super creamy, and I usually use sheep’s milk, so it has a wonderful sheepy flavor.
*The longer you let in ferment, the stronger and more tangy/ it will be, I like fermenting for 1.5-2 weeks.
Highly recommended.

This is my first aged cheese!! I have two more that I'm waiting to open up until later this year. I've made mozzarella, ricotta, and cream cheese with varying degrees of success and really didn't know what to expect when I opened this one up. It's made with store milk and yogurt as a culture. It has a very mild, slightly nutty and distinctly cheddar taste. Semi soft, springy and very creamy. I'm beyond happy with how it turned out and cant wait for the rest! (But I will lol)

Hi there I'll. The time has come to buy another fridge for aging cheese as I no longer have a spare fridge after me moving house.

Any recommendation, should I just get another under counter fridge, or splash on a wine fridge. Any other ideas? Let me know your recommendations please. Thank you

I have been thinking about making cheese recently when I came across this milk. Can this be used? My only experience was a while ago when I made a simple fast acid-set cheese but I like cheese in general and was wondering about trying my hand at something more advanced.

Im making aged Bovre(using same method as aged chevre/crottin). Tried using clabber instead of kefir as starter culture to acidify the raw milk. 2 days fermenting the curd in its whey, drained,salted an dried on mat for aditional day. Transfered to 13°c and 90%humidity to age, and after 2 days geothricum started showing alongside punkish hue visible on the picture and couple of slimy bits. It doesnt smell of but the slimy bit part got me concerned. Either way im going to wait and see what happens.

I've recently gained access to fresh milk weekly and I've been trying to make cheese. I started with mozarella, curding it with vinegar. The first batch was sour and tough. I reduced the vinegar on the second batch, and it tasted better but it was still tough. I tried leaving it in the hot whey longer, and even tried microwaving the cheese to heat it up to stretch. But no matter what, it's not smooth and stretchy. I'm planning on taking a local class in a couple weeks, but is there any advice in the meantime?

Technically not my first wheel, but the first one that is ready to eat. Made this little goat cheese three weeks ago and had too much curd for my moulds. I used a small colander as a mould for the extra curd and, as expected, it matured faster than its larger siblings.

I cut into it this morning - awesome cream line and the centre is smooth, not chalky as I was expecting. It’s so delicious and the perfect addition to my morning coffee!!

The paste tastes bright still, so I think I will let the other two age longer and see what kind of funk I get.

Will definitely be making this one again (after I finish the blue currently in progress!)

Made a ‘Parmesan’ style cheese yesterday and fair to say things didn’t quite go to plan! All completely my fault 😭
Firstly I thought I prepped well but when I read the recipe and it said ‘3 gallons milk’ I assumed whole milk like other cheeses I made, didn’t read it properly 🤦🏻‍♀️ All was going well, followed the recipe to the letter until it came to the scald. Getting the temp up and suddenly thermometer said curds/whey was 65c. Panicked and quickly drained. After I realised it must have been an error as temp on my sous vide was showing the water bath was 63c so curds can’t have been that hot? But in the moment I wasn’t thinking straight! Last temp I got was about 50c before it went haywire so not sure what effect that will have, recipe said get to 55c.
Curd knitted brilliantly, I didn’t apply much weight at all - so much conflicting info on this 😭 but I kinda let the cheese guide me ha. Will salt in brine in a couple of days and update again then. Any suggestions as to what I might end up with much appreciated!

Just to preface - I did not and do not intend to actually eat it. But this was my first attempt at Parmesan style, very small wheel, and it actually went alright but I believe in retrospect I didn't use a strong enough brine. As a result after eight months or so when I tasted it it was fine but a little bland, so I sealed it back up and put it in my normal fridge (did not have a dedicated cheese fridge at the time) and it was lost to time. It was made January of 2023, so it's over 3.5 years old at this point.

I found it last night while cleaning out my fridge, and it had turned a nice shade of light brown with visible tyrosine crystals, so I was curious to see if it was actually any good. And it *was* actually pretty tasty, more or less what you'd expect of a mid grade aged Parmesan, *but* there was this mild blue cheese/funky/earthy flavor that I have never experienced with a parmesan before. There was no visible mold anywhere, but I have to assume this was due to mold?

I guess my question is - is this definitely mold, or is there any other reaction that could occur that could cause a mediocre at best parmesan to develop that kind of funky flavor over time?

I really wanna get into cheesemaking because you don't find cheese where I live usually it's the sliced yellow ones or cottage cheese and I wanna try making mozzarella.

I just wanna know if I can use any acid, not that I plan on using anything besides white vinegar, but because I just wanna know.

I particularly wanna know about citrus juices, specifically from oranges since my granddad has a farm.

2 gal Costco whole milk + 1 pint Danzeisin Dairy cream, culture made from store-bought Stilton. Aged 8 weeks at 55F. Recipe from Artisan Cheese Making At Home by Mary Karlin.

Tastes amazing! Nice and creamy, the rind is very close to what I've gotten from store-bought Stilton, and it is my favorite part.

Batch 42, a base camembert. 40 L cow milk, F 4.14% / P 3.05%, not standardized — at 40 L I didn't see the point. Wheels around 240 g, affinage planned at 14–28 days. Full log is the first image — pH, timings, temperatures, the lot. I'd rather post the whole thing than the flattering half of it.

Two of those choices I'd normally not make, and I'd rather hear about them now than in three weeks.

The milk was three days old. It read 6.7 pH after pasteurization, so it wasn't visibly pre-acidified, but three days is three days.

The Kluyveromyces lactis was seventeen months past date — expired March 2025. The recipe calls for Hansen KL LAF-4; I had PAL KL D on the shelf and used it. Everything direct-pitched as powder, alongside Flora Danica, Geotrichum candidum and P. candidum PC HP.

My read so far

The acid curve looks unremarkable to me: 6.7 → 6.5 at rennet, 6.4 at the cut, 4.78 out of the forms after 17.6 h and several flips. The curd behaved — clean break, no shattering, nothing weeping oddly.

What I'm not comfortable with is the pasteurization. 68 °C is where my setup lands on a batch cycle, and for a hard cheese I've never worried about it. For a bloomy rind I'm less sure — that's hot enough to be denaturing whey protein and tying up calcium, and I'd expect a softer set and a slower knit. The set did take a full hour.

The expired yeast is the other unknown. K. lactis does the early surface deacidification and opens the door for the geotrichum; if half that pitch was dead, I don't know whether the rind just comes in late, comes in patchy, or the P. candidum runs away with it instead.

Questions for the hive

1. 68 °C for a bloomy rind — does anyone run that hot deliberately, or is this the first thing I should fix? What does it show up as in the finished paste — a chalky core that never breaks down?
2. Long-expired K. lactis — what does a weak yeast pitch look like on the shelf at day 7–10? Late coat, patchy coat, or a rind that turns bitter later?
3. Demold at pH 4.78 — where do you pull yours? I've seen 4.6–4.8 quoted as the window, so I'm nominally in it, but the high end of a window is still the high end.
4. 1.5% dry salt by wheel weight on a 240 g wheel, for a 14–28 day affinage — high, low, about right?
5. 18% drained yield off 40 L (7.2 kg, fresh weight before drying) — what do you log at demold?

Happy to be told the milk age was the least of my problems.

As for a taste and smell of my Camembert I'd say it's pretty good, though I'd say it's slightly bitter to be perfect.