# Cheese Press



## WannabeWaltons (Nov 18, 2016)

I would like to try making some pressed, hard cheeses and eventually aged cheeses. Has anyone successfully made a cheese press? I would imagine the companies that are trying to sell theirs don't have any big secrets. But I have also read if you don't press by the right weight for just the right time you ruin the end product. I would like to see a few DIY cheese weights before using some milk since I no longer have a cow so I don't want to spend money ruining milk.


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## FireMaker (Apr 3, 2014)

We have made use of an old sausage stuffer, lined with cheesecloth. Crank a few times every now and then to compress same. Then during deer season you can use it to make sausage


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## dyrne (Feb 22, 2015)

I don't know of a handy way of measuring pressure you are exerting on something if using a twist type press. The only way I can think of would be using a weight instead on top of a board. 

Making an old fashioned manual wood press though would be pretty cool.









The hardest part to me would be making the threaded dowel.. but there is an inscrutable here on that part http://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Nuts-Bolts/

Edit: actually these dutch style presses might make the most sense but I've not made either of these types.


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## WannabeWaltons (Nov 18, 2016)

I have never seen those Dutch style presses before! It almost looks like something I could figure out how to make. Thank you for posting that picture. Hopefully I can google up some how to build it plans.


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## Its me (Mar 22, 2017)

I use a cylinder colander....put a plate on the cheesecloth wraped curd....them put weights as needed....i use my sons weight bench weights...i have done up to 50lbs for a parmesean cheese and it worked great. I think it might actually be the basket to a steamer pot but not sure. I got it for $15 and it holds approximately 8+ lbs of curds.
Forgot to mention i used to use a regular sized colander that was bowl shaped that worked alright but gave a dome shaped cheese so it aged iggegularly which wasnt a big deal for my pepper jack cheese but didnt work so well for longer aged cheese.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

I made one. Two 2"x12" boards cut about 8 inches. Four pieces of iron pipe, maybe 18 inches long. Drilled four holes halfway through the bottom board using the top board with holes drilled all the way through on the four corners as a template. Holes are the size of the pipe on the bottom, larger on the top. Cut around a 14 inch long piece of plastic drain pipe, I think it is 12" diameter. Cut a little shorter piece of 8 inch pvc, made a disk out of a sheet of 1/4" inch plastic. Bent a piece of flashing around the bottom and left a spout at one end. Later bought a drain pan from a dairy supply place, after a few years the whey ate up my flashing. 

Pretty simple really, put the big pipe on the drip pan, put the curds in cheese cloth inside, fold down the cloth, insert the disk, put the follower on top, stick the pipes on the corners, put the top board over the pipes. Add weight, weight lifting weights, or bricks, or stones of a known weight. 

Easy to use, works great, the drip pan that I purchased later was a perfect fit. Made the whole thing originally with scrap materials, but whey will eat flashing, over time. I did use a never before used scrap piece of drain line, (the light green stuff), I wouldn't want to use a previously used septic line, just because of the thought of it, you do clean it and have a layer of sterile cheese cloth protecting it from the cheese, but still.

The only thing about it, it's a little wobbly. I had to enlarge the holes a little or the top board would bind up. So no soccer practice around the table where it is being used. I would have made the boards a little longer if I knew how much weight we might were potentially going to stack on the thing, it would have made it easier to use, but would take up more space.

I am not the cheese maker here. (I shovel poop and build things.) I have told the cheese maker that we could probably swing a cheese press that isn't made of scrap sewer pipe, but the cheese maker says it works better than some that her friends have purchased, so no.

(All measurements are approximate, I am not digging all the parts off the shelf for measurement right now. I would get yelled at if I touched anything on that shelf.)


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