Publisher's Synopsis
Welcome to cheese making!
Everybody loves cheese but what really is it and why dont we make it more often at home.Cheese is a dairy product derived from milk that is produced in a wide range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. Most homemade cheese is made from milk, bacteria and rennet. Cheese can be made from almost any kind of milk including cow, goat, sheep, skim, whole, raw, pasteurized and powdered. Home cheese making differs from commercial cheese making in scale and in the need to produce exact duplicate products day after day for retail markets. Commercial cheese makers use the same ingredients as home cheese makers, but they must obtain local certifications and follow strict regulations. If you would like to sell your cheese, its important you start by making simple cheese. What makes each cheese so different when different tytpes of cheese use the same ingredients? At first glance, it may seem that different types of cheese are made the same way. However, the differences in cheese come from very slight variations in the process. Cheddar and Colby, for example, are very similar as they start out, but Colby has a step where water is added to the curds, causing it to a higher moisture cheese than Cheddar. Some other factors that play a role in the final cheese include the amount of culture, ripening time, amount of rennet, and size of the curds, how long and high the milk is heated, the length of time curds are stirred, and how the whey is removed. Minor changes in any of these areas can make a dramatic difference in the final cheese. The yield of cheese from one gallon of milk is approximately one pound for the hard cheese and two pounds for the soft cheese. When buying cheese making supplies it is a good idea to find a Cheese Making Recipe first, then start making a list of the ingredients and equipment you will need to make your cheese.
