It is wonderful to have you here at the essential site for home cheese making. At Curd Nerd, we are avid home cheese makers and noticed that following cheese-making recipes didn’t always work out as planned.

Over the years we have developed our own recipes that work for us every time. We have also solved a lot of questions as to why cheese didn’t always turn out as we had hoped. And so, Curd Nerd was born.

Why Curd Nerd?

Over the last few years we have put together a range of recipes, as well as articles, which cover a lot of cheese making questions. So, why do we do it?

I suppose the information could be kept to ourselves. However, when we first started making cheese at home it was so difficult to find good information to guide us.

So, what we really wanted to do was to be able to share all of the information that we have learnt with all of you. We want you to be able to make the most delicious, satisfying, stress-free cheese in the comfort of your own home.

Getting The Most Out Of Curd Nerd

Beginners To Cheese Making

You will notice that Curd Nerd has a few different features for you to explore. If you are a newbie to cheese making, we recommend that you start right at the beginning to learn the ins and outs of home cheese making. Take your time and go through the information at Beginner? Start Here.

You will learn about which ingredients to use for your cheese, common terminology, how culture and rennet are used and a whole lot more. Of course, if you have any questions or are confused by anything to do with cheese making, you can head over to our Curd Nerd Forum where our beautiful community of Curd Nerds can help out.

Getting Started

Once you’re familiar with the basics, it is time to start your first home cheese making adventure! You will find a variety of both soft and hard cheese recipes on Curd Nerd. Each of these has been tried, measured and written by us. They may not all be the traditional way to do it, however it is what has seemed to work for us, consistently.

We make all of our recipes with cows milk, simply because we cannot get access to fresh goat’s and sheep’s milk where we live. However, the recipes are all referenced to the type of milk that would traditionally be used. So, have a go at some of our recipes. Once you start making your own cheese at home, you will never want store bought again.

You can access all recipes here.

Cheese Making Techniques

Okay, so now you have chosen which cheese to make and you have a recipe to follow. You have the correct ingredients and a basic understanding of how to go about this cheese making. Now, you are almost ready to begin. There are just a few more things you will want to know to get the best results for your efforts. Head over to our Techniques page.

Here you will find information on things such as preservation and waxing of your cheese, the correct aging environments, how to make your own starter cultures and so much more. It is definitely worth having a read through those articles as you will pick up a lot of extra information that will guide you on your cheese-making journey.

Troubleshooting – Solving Those Cheesy Problems

Every once in a while home cheese making doesn’t quite go to plan. It is not ideal, but it is the reality of cheese making. So much depends on the small stuff, like the quality of milk and sterilization of equipment. But never fear! Curd Nerd has got you covered.

We have answered the most common questions that we get from our members. Things such as how Calcium Chloride can be used, why your Camembert doesn’t grow white mold and why your Mozzarella won’t stretch properly.

If you have any questions of your own, you can ask the community in our Curd Nerd Forum. But for now, have a read through our Troubleshooting page to see if the information there answers your questions.

Using The Correct Equipment

Making cheese at home requires a few pieces of specialized equipment, depending on the cheese that you are making. At Curd Nerd, we try our best to provide cost friendly alternatives for our beginners.

However, once your start making cheese regularly there are a few items that you may want to invest in, such as a cheese cave and a cheese press.

There are also smaller items and ingredients that you will need for most recipes, such as cultures, rennet, cheese salt and wax. We’ve put together a list of everything that you might need for your home cheese making, just to make it a little easier for you to find.

You can check out the list at our Equipment page.

The Curd Nerd Blog

If you’re looking to read more about home cheese making, head over to our Curd Nerd Blog. Here we cover a range of cheese topics, such as which milk is best for cheese making and how to use your left over whey.

And sometimes an article will be written on what we are thinking about at the time, like great Christmas presents which incorporate cheese. Take a look around the blog section. You may find a few helpful tips and tricks to improve your cheese making.

Read our blog posts here.

The Curd Nerd Forum

The reason Curd Nerd started was to make hard-to-find information about cheese making available to everyone. We have realised over the years that there are so many variables in cheese making, and so many questions and discussions pop up all the time. While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, sometimes it is best to get other peoples opinions as well.

We created the Curd Nerd forum so that our wonderful community of home cheese makers from all over the world could come together and share their experience. Please sign up to the forum so that you can get involved. Ask away and don’t forget to help out your fellow Curd Nerds as well.

Register for the Curd Nerd Forum here.

Thank you so much for following us and becoming a Curd Nerd! We feel privileged to guide you on your journey to becoming a home cheese-making connoisseur.

And it was a good one. At -5º Celsius overnight the ground was icy white by this morning.

The first frost always signals a few changes for me. The frost cloths go on the citrus trees in our edible garden, the Yams get dug over after the first frost kills off the tops of the plants, and I prepare to get the Garlic planted to grow over the Winter.

It’s also my signal to stop making cheese for the Winter.

Why Do I Stop Making Cheese?

I’ve been asked before if cheese making is a seasonal hobby.

Not necessarily, but it can be depending on where in the world you’re making your cheese, and what changes the seasons bring in that part of the world.

It also depends on whether you are using raw unpasteurised milk, or if you’re buying your milk from a commercial supplier.

If your milk is all commercially sourced you’re unlikely to notice too much of a change in milk quality throughout the year. The processing that commercial milk goes through neutralises most of the seasonal variances in the original milk product.

I personally use only raw milk for my cheese making which means my milk quality is fully exposed to the variables of the changing seasons.

Where I live, late Autumn and Winter bring frosts, rain, and snow, which all affect the feed for the cows that produce my milk source. In the colder months they go from eating fresh, new grass, to being fed hay and silage.

When they change to this food source, the quality of the milk they produce changes.

It’s not necessarily a bad change, but it’s a change that affects my cheese making. With ‘Winter Milk’ I get a weaker curd, higher acidity levels, and a different final texture and taste to my cheeses.

Some of the changes are good. The milk produced in the Winter tends to be higher in fat which can be wonderful for certain cheeses like Brie or Camembert where you want a creamy, rich cheese.

But the difference in milk quality isn’t the only thing that affects my cheese making over Winter.

With colder temperatures it can take more effort to maintain temperatures during the cheese making process and you have to watch a lot more closely to ensure you can keep them accurate.

Rather than put in time and effort that could be wasted with failures or disappointment in the final product, I simply take a break and stop making cheese during the colder months.

Lactation

Some cheese makers will also slow down, or halt their cheese making  for a short period during the year due to the cessation of lactation in milk producing stock.

Cows and Goats have a reasonably long lactation period for their young and, if you have a larger herd with a staggered calving plan, then you may have access to milk all year round or only a short break in supply.

Sheep have a much shorter lactation period so if they’ve had their young in Spring, by Winter they are most likely to have dried up their milk supply which will mean certain cheeses either won’t be made, or will be made using stored milk or milk from other stock.

Cheese Making All Year Round

There are many places in the world where cheese making can, and does, continue all year round.

When a climate is more temperate the changes in feed are much less significant and therefore do not impact the cheese making process as much, if at all.

In other areas seasonal changes are embraced and you can select to buy a cheese based on the season it was made in, with a certain profile as a result.

Likewise, commercial cheese makers, and well seasoned small industry cheese makers have the tools and expertise to counteract seasonal variations in their products and will either work it to their advantage, or manage it to produce a more consistent cheese as expected by their customers.

Whether you continue to make cheese over the colder months is entirely a personal choice. There’s reasons why you might take a break, but if those reasons don’t apply where you are, or you’re happy to work with the changes that occur, then just keep going!

Do you have any questions or comments about seasonal cheese making? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

Related Posts

Cheese Making Techniques

Cheese Making Troubleshooting

Christmas Starter Ideas For Home Made Cheese Pt1

I recently left my full time job and have been spending the last few weeks settling into a new routine. I have to say it has been quite strange after 20 years in the corporate world, aiming for the top of the ladder but it’s also exciting to be following a shift in priorities.

With a few extra hours available to me at home now, one of the things that I knew I would spend more time doing is making cheese. I’ve had in the back of my mind other cheese recipes that I am keen to have a go at but I have been sticking to my old favourites due to a lack of time to ‘play’ and trial.

So over the next few weeks, I’m going to be giving these recipes a go:

• Edam – a semi hard cheese with a mild taste
• Havarti – a cheese that is delicious grilled and melted
• Blue Cheese – cheese with ‘blue’ mold veins throughout the cheese

I have added these new recipes to Curd-Nerd after researching all of the recipes I could find for each and bringing together what seemed to be the commonly agreed methods for making these cheeses.

Once I make these myself I will, of course, adjust the recipes if I find anything to be wrong or detrimental to the end result but in the meantime, if you also have a hankering to advance to a different cheese recipe why not try one of the above and let me know how it goes.

I’m always keen to hear the success other Curd-Nerds have with their cheese making.

I will continue to add new recipes to Curd-Nerd but if there are any specific cheese recipes you want to try out, please drop me a line in the comments below and I’ll do my best to research and find a recipe for you to test out.

On a different note, just to let you know that I have added a new feature to the comments area of Curd-Nerd.

It’s a very simply feature, but definitely handy none-the-less.

Now when you post a comment (thank you to all those who have got in touch) you will be able to subscribe to your comment so that when a reply is posted, you will be alerted via email.

The other great thing about the new feature is that if you spot a comment that another reader has posted, which you would also like to see the answer to, you can subscribe to that comment without actually having to comment yourself.

And while we’re talking comments….if you see a question, that you have the answer to, don’t be shy. Drop a comment back and join in the discussion. I don’t proclaim to be an expert by any means and if you have something valuable to add it would be a shame for other readers to miss out on your knowledge.

So go on! Join in with the comments and share a little of what you know : )

The point of pressing your cheese is to not only expel the whey but it is also how the small curds are knitted together to form the smooth shape, texture and density of the cheese.

When the curds don’t knit properly you will get a range of results from creases, cracks and crevices throughout the cheese, or a complete catastrophe of curd that doesn’t form any kind of shape or mass and just falls apart.

So what causes a lack of knit with cheese curds?

There are a couple of likely explanations if your curds don’t knit together.

The first, and most common reason, is a lack of sufficient pressure or pressing time when molding the curds, particularly with hard cheeses like Cheddar.

It is important to follow the recipe guides for pressing weights and durations with your cheese making but also take into account if you have made a larger batch or are using a mold which might alter how the pressure is applied. For example deeper molds may require more surface pressure to compensate for the density and springiness of the curds.

Another reason you may experience a poor knit with your curd is due to the temperature of the curd when it was time to press.

If the curd is too cold when you put it into the mold, it can be very difficult to get a good knit for your cheese as the curd firms up.

If you are living in colder climates and keeping your curd warm prior to and during the pressing is a problem, one way to keep your curd warm enough is to press in the pot.

To do this, put your empty, clean stockpot in the sink. Put your cheese, in its mold, into the stockpot and then put your first weight requirement from the recipe on top to press the cheese. Plate weights are good for this purpose.

Next fill the sink with hot water so that the inside of the pot reaches approximately 30 degrees Celsius and put the lid on. Keep your cheese pressing in the pot for the first press and 2^nd press (after the first turn).

The warmth of the pot will also warm the curd and should help them to knit nicely together to form a fabulous cheese.

On the flipside, curd that is too hot can also have problems. If you warm your curd too quickly during the make a skin can form on the surface of the curd and can retard the knitting process so it’s important to keep your curd within the recommended temperatures to avoid problems.

So if you’re struggling with getting a good curd knit keep an eye on your pressing weight and times, and also your curd temperatures.

And if you are still having problems with your cheese, post a comment below and let the Curd-Nerd community help you out : )

For more information about pressing your cheese, check out these posts:

The Pressing Issue About Cheese
Why Did My Curd Stick To My Cheese Cloth
Pressing Your Cheese –  Bringing It All Together

Pressing your cheese is not only an important part of shaping the cheese but is also important in creating the texture and as part of the aging process.

What Cheese Needs Pressing

Soft cheeses need either no pressing, are pressed under their own weight or have minimal light weight applied to form the cheese.

Hard cheese on the other hand must be pressed and after your cheese has been through each of the steps to get to the point of having curds ready to turn into cheese, you need to apply enough weight in a way that will knit the curds, expel any extra whey and create the shape of your final product.

How To Press Cheese

Each cheese will require differing weights, at particular points in the pressing process.

The pressing process normally starts off with a lighter weight applied for shorter periods then increases to a heavier weight towards the end of the pressing process with the weight left on for longer periods (up to 12 hours).

Pressing at lighter weights to begin with prevents the soft curds from being pushed out of any gaps in the mold or press. It also prevents too much of the butterfat from being pressed out which can cause a hard outer surface to form too soon and stop the cheese from draining properly.

And if excess whey is left in the cheese, this can cause it to spoil over a relatively short time.

During the pressing you will need to regularly unwrap, redress and turn your cheese.

If you don’t do this, you will find that as the curds knit and shrink down, the cheese cloth will be pulled in and molded into the cheese. When this happens, it’s a bit (ok A LOT) of a nightmare to deal with.

Think loss of effort, patience, curd and cloth.

I learnt my lesson very early on from this Parmesan failure.

Likewise, not turning the cheese can create uneven surfaces, shapes and texture.

Turning your cheese over frequently helps to distribute the remaining whey evenly throughout the body of your cheese, ensuring the cheese isn’t plagued by mismatched dry then moist spots.

You want your cheese to look as good as possible (it’s so exciting when your cheese comes out looking like something straight out of a cheese shop) so take the time to regularly tend your cheese while pressing and reap the rewards.

When pressing, be sure to set the press in a tray or have a drip tray system of some sort. You’ll be surprised how much whey can be expelled from your cheese.

Also, it is important to be aware that if you are increasing the size of the cheese, compared to a specific recipe, you may need to increase the pressing weights as weight (or pressure) is relative to the surface and density of the cheese.

Although you can use all sort of home objects like full paint tins, pots of water, bricks or food tins, having a proper cheese press will give you much more consistent and reliable results.

There are a number of different style presses you can buy but if you are lucky enough to have someone you know that has reasonable DIY skills, there are many sites on the internet that provide instructions for making a suitable cheese press. It’s worth looking around to see which type you prefer.

If I could, I would have a Pneumatic press like this one, but you might prefer a Cylinder Press, a Wall Press or the Dutch Press.

Once your cheese is pressed you are almost there!

You should definitely have something that you can show off and then prepare for the next step of aging, which we will cover next.

Do you have any questions or comments about Cheese Pressing? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

Curd-Nerd has added 3 new soft cheese recipes to the recipe list for you to try your cheese making hand at.

We have also made a small change to the menu so that the Soft Cheese Recipes and the Hard Cheese Recipes have been split out into separate menus. This should make it quicker to find the recipes you want.

The latest recipes to be added include:

• Chevré– a fresh goat’s milk cheese which is extremely simple to make
• Cottage Cheese – extremely versatile and more delicious than the watery store bought stuff
• Brie – known as ‘The Queen of Cheese’ this one is challenging, but well worth mastering

We’ll be adding even more recipes soon but if there are any specific cheese recipes you want to try out in the meantime, please let us know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to add it straight away.

Good luck with these new recipes and please, ask any questions that you have.

A decent Cheddar can be expensive, especially the delicious vintages, but making your own Cheddar at home can yield you a far superior cheese than the cheap blocks you might buy otherwise at your local store.

Making your first block of Cheddar can seem daunting though. While the name of this cheese came from the area in England where it originated, cheddaring is also the term for the technique of milling and stacking the curds during the make, a seemingly complex process that can deter new cheese makers.

A Cheddar make also takes nearly 8 hours, followed by a day and half of pressing and many months of aging. This is definitely not a quick win cheese.

But it is still possible to enjoy your own home made Cheddar without too much effort.

Farmhouse Cheddar

More rustic in appearance, Farmhouse Cheddar is sometimes considered the poor cousin of traditional Cheddar but I have a personal fondness for it due to the ease of production and the fact that it can be enjoyed in just a few months.

Farmhouse Cheddar tends to be slightly more crumbly and a bit drier than the firmer, traditional Cheddar and with a short aging period it might be assumed it isn’t as complex in flavour but I find that you still get the sharpness and the fullness of taste that are the signature of a traditional Cheddar.

And the best news is, that making Farmhouse Cheddar, doesn’t require the stacking and milling process (cheddaring) or the long pressing times that traditional Cheddar requires so it is much easier and quicker to make.

In fact some cheese makers now believe that the cheddaring process is more about tradition, rather than a requirement for taste and texture so why not take the easier path with Farmhouse Cheddar?

In saying that, I do like to make a Traditional Cheddar every now and then, when I have more time. I like to experience both styles of Cheddar and keep exploring the more advanced cheese making skills.

So if you are considering a foray into hard cheeses, you might like to try out this simple but rewarding Cheddar.

I will post the recipes for both Farmhouse Cheddar and Traditional Cheddar here on Curd-Nerd so you can take your pick, but if you are new to making hard cheeses, I would definitely recommend trying the Farmhouse first.

Have you tried making Farmhouse Cheddar? How did you go? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

But you find when you start to peel the cheese cloth away, the curd has stuck to it and no matter how cautiously you try to pull it away, the curd sticks and breaks away from the cheese mass. The cloths a mess, the cheese now has chunks out of it and you wonder what went wrong?

There are two reasons why your cheese curd might have become stuck like this:

1. With hard cheeses that are pressed for longer periods, at heavier weights you need to turn and redress your cheese a couple of times during the press time so that it not only forms in a more uniform shape, but also does not mold into the cheese cloth.
2. If a cheese has a higher PH at dressing and molding you may find it sticks. Haloumi can be a bit notorious for this and as the curds shrink, lose more whey and form a soft rind they pull the cloth into the curd and meld together.

Answer:

With harder cheeses be sure to turn and redress as often as advised in the recipe. Don’t try and be ‘efficient’ with this part of the make. For the cheese that has a higher PH when molding, soak your cloth in whey before molding.

If in doubt of the PH level, err on the side of caution and soak the cloth anyway.

Do you have any questions or comments about Home Cheese Making? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

Cheese making is a constant opportunity for learning and improving.

With every cheese you make, there are a variety of changes that can occur naturally, be made purposefully or happen accidentally that will alter your end product subtly, or completely.

The variables are many which means there are plenty of learning curves to experience when you get into cheese making.

No cheese is ever exactly the same, regardless of how hard you try to make it exactly the same way each time. Anything from the source of milk, time of the year the milk is used,  organic, store brought, culture amounts, curd size, you name it, any of these factors can affect changes in your cheese.

Some of the changes you will want to forget but don’t throw them away and pretend they never happened. Mistakes should be a learning opportunity, so you know what to do differently next time. Especially in cheese making. Otherwise you’ll just waste a lot of milk.

Likewise, some mistakes actually turn out really well and you might want to try and replicate them next time. But what was the one thing you did differently this time that produced that fantastic cheese? Chances are you won’t remember, unless you took notes.

Which is exactly what you should do.

Every cheese I make is recorded in cheese journal like the one linked at the bottom of this article. I take notes on the products, the make and the aging so I know exactly what I did right, or wrong.

I can track every cheese I make and eat and if it is bad, unusual or (hopefully) excellent, see what might have contributed to results by the details in the log.

I am linking my Curd Nerd Cheese Log here so that if you find it useful, you can use it for tracking your own cheese making. If it doesn’t suit you, put together something that is similar, but with the details you care about, so you can track your cheese making and learn from all the little nuances that occur along the way.

I go a little further and attach a page of photos of the cheese with each log but then perhaps I’m a little OCD about this hobby ; )

Get The Curd Nerd Cheese Log Here

Do you have any questions or comments about how to use a Cheese Log? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum