This turns out to be pretty much everything needed to make many types of cheeses at home. Not shown are a large pot and milk.
One area of food that I have never explored is cheese making but that is about to change. My best gift of the recent holidays was a cheese making kit and the book “Artisan Cheese Making At Home” by Mary Katlin. I am looking forward to learning cheese making and to compare it to baking bread and fermenting vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi that also rely on micro-organisms to transform one form of food into another.
I believe that dairy products can be an important source of nutrients in a healthy whole food diet. Though I only eat small amounts of dairy, cheese is probably more than half of my total dairy intake. It is important for health to consume grass-fed dairy products, preferably full-fat, for maximum nutrition.
Fermented dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, sour cream and kefir have some advantages over fresh milk. Microbial fermentation transforms much of the lactose(milk sugar) into acids. This causes the characteristic sour milk taste but also makes fermented dairy digestible by many lactose-intolerant people. Many fermented dairy products also contribute live microbial cultures to our gut, which can often have a positive impact on overall health. Fermented foods also have a very extended shelf life compared to the fresh product – cheese and kimchi last much longer than fresh milk or fresh Napa cabbage.
The list of what is included in the cheese making kit.
The cheese making kit is made by Leeners and is based on “The Complete Idiots Guide To Cheese Making” by James R. Leverentz. A copy of the soft-cover book is included in the kit. This kit also includes pretty much everything needed to start making small batches of many types of cheeses. There is flaked salt, low-temperature cheese wax, coarse and fine cheesecloth, a curd-cutting knife, a long-handled slotted spoon, an accurate quick-reading digital thermometer and a wide variety of dried cultures for different cheese types.
“Flaked” salt is specially ground and required for cheese making. It is not readily available at stores but included in the kit.
A few things are not included in the cheese making kit, either out of space concerns or because most home kitchens will already have them. The most important additional item that is needed is a large non-reactive pot(s). Many simple cheeses can be made in 5-6 quart pots that most home kitchens will have but some of the cheeses have larger minimum batch sizes and require a pot that will hold sixteen quarts of milk. Another missing item is a 1/8 teaspoon measure, easy enough to find but not included on every measuring spoon set.
One pound of red wax for coating aged cheeses is included in the cheese making kit.
Also not included in the kit, of course, is the milk. The recipes in the included book are all designed to work with commercial pasteurized and homogenized milk, either cow’s milk or goat’s milk. For many cheeses, cow’s and goat’s milk are interchangeable and the only real difference is the final flavor of the finished cheese. I firmly believe in the health benefits of grass-fed dairy products as opposed to commercial grain-fed dairy. I plan to use grass-fed pasteurized, un-homogenized whole milk for all of my initial cheeses.
I am reading through “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Cheese Making” for the second time and have started reading “Artisan Cheese Making At Home”. A first batch of Indian paneer cheese was a success, as was a second batch. The next cheese to be made is queso blanco. I will post these and future cheese making efforts when I have properly made a cheese twice(to ensure the first time was not just a happy accident). Also look for reviews of the mentioned books.