# New to cheese making



## HTWannabee (Jan 19, 2007)

I have never made cheese before and want to try my hand at it. I buy raw milk from a local dairy and really want to try cheese making with it. Looking back what mistakes did you make? What did you learn that you can pass on to a newbie like me? I have seen places to buy cheese making supplies, like Lehmans any recommendations for purchases? Is there any difference between goat cheese making and cow? Do you need any special set up at home? Thank you in advance!


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## Julia (Jan 29, 2003)

What a good question. I had to think a while to come up with an answer, but this is what I'd do over differently, if I could.

First, no matter how much it cost, or how far I'd have to travel, I would have found a real, live cheesemaker who would let me sit in on a make, and watch how cheese is made. It's almost impossible to learn this art from books, it's such a visual process, and you can learn more in one day of keen observation and careful questions than you can in 5 years of book reading and experiment. Truly. Find a class, and save yourself tons of evil tasting cheese. Find a class.

And while I was there, I'd have the cheesemaker show me how to titrate the acidity of the whey, and show me when to do it. I'd also have them tell me not to leave the NaOH open to the air between makes, and to buy fresh often, because otherwise my titrations won't be accurate.

Secondly, I'd have bought a sturdy notebook to take notes in, and I would have taken those notes on every make, at every step, no matter how tedious it was nor how much of a hurry I was in. You cannot trust your memory. You think you can, but you can't and you'll lose lots of time and cheese pretending.

Thirdly, I would understand the process thoroughly *before* I began. Start here: <http://www.isleofmullcheese.co.uk/jalldridge/jaindex.htm>.

If I had done all this, I'd have saved myself untold time and trouble---that's my best advice. Good luck!


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## RuthAnnF (Sep 23, 2007)

Hello HT
I live in MA also and just last month my sister and I took a cheesmaking workshop from Ricki Carroll in Ashfield MA (north western MA). It was a whole day class where you participated in making different cheeses, then you have lunch and eat some of what you made.
Other than the room being crowded I found it very informative and enjoyed the experience, and she allows you to ask questions. Unfortunately it is not cheap. It costs $150.00. But you get a DVD and other suff with that. 
It maybe something you are interested in. Her website is www.cheesemaking.com


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## Julia (Jan 29, 2003)

I took Ag-Innovation's three day artisan cheesemaking course in Vermont. The class size was very small, it was hands-on, and we got to work with Jersey milk, goat's milk and sheep's milk. We worked in the Faillaces' new cheese plant, which was, for all intents, a concrete slab covered over by this enormous poly hoop structure, like a garden mini-greenhouse, but on a much larger scale. We made hard cheese, soft cheese, discussed brining, aging and cheese in general. For lunch, they served us bread, wine and an assortment of 10-12 cheeses, and we'd sit and discuss cheese more. Even though I had been making cheese for years at that point, and read widely and discussed it all with other cheesemakers on the net, the cheese course redefined my understanding of cheesemaking and put it on a whole different plane. I wished I had done it sooner. It's longer than Ricki Carrol's class, and so more expensive, but there was much more depth. http://www.rootswork.org/three_shepherds.htm

The Small Dairy website has listings for many, many classes, both for home cheesemakers and professional ones. http://www.smalldairy.com/courses.html


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