I was triggered by Tammy’s topic “Where we all live”: Yes we are living in different countries, speak different languages, have different cultures, even use different recipees to make the same cheese but I’m also sure that we use different tools and materials for making cheese.
For tranporting the milk I bought some white polypropylene jerrycans in a shop for camping supplies.
On the picture you see a large electric kettle. I bought this one (second hand) for several reasons: We have a “not so big” kitchen where we cook on induction. Large pans for induction are very expensive and my wife doesn’t want me to occupy the kitchen for most of the day… The electric kettle allows me to use e.g. the batchroom (picture is made there) and can hold about 5.5 gallon. The only disadvantage is that it’s tricky to control the temperature.
I use a digital thermometer and I have to switch of the heating before the temperature is reached, how many degrees before is also depending on the amount of milk I use. A matter of getting used to….
For measuring I use a set of standard spoons (from 1/8 teaspoon up to 1 tablespoon) which I bought in a store for cooking suplies.
Further you see an original curd knife that I borrowed from a goat farmer that stopped with making cheese and some Kadova Gouda molds, that are the molds with net in it, so I don’t have to use cheese cloths when I’m pressing.
And the press on the other picture is also borrowed, I’m refactoring something like that in oak. It is almost an antique one and it is made by a company that currently makes euipment for cheese factories (big inox tanks and hydrolic presses etc.)
Brine I make from the whey, on 0,25 gallon I use 7 oz. of salt (200 gram per liter) and I add 1 teaspoon of Calciumcloride per liter the first time I use it.
The brine I use for cleaning the cheeses is made with water instead of whey and I add some vinager to it.
As cave I use a 4.5 feet high fridge without freezer which is connected to a universal thermostate with sensor. The freezer I bought second hand for about $ 30 and the thermostate allows me to control the temperature very precise. In the fridge I have a 5 inch fan from a computer case, running constantly on lowest speed.
Well, I’m curious how big the differences are with the equipment you all use….
Looks great, nice to see other peoples wears.
I use the basics as cost is a factor. My PH meter is the most advanced piece of equipment I have, other then that I use a Canning pot for cooking on a stove, and I bought a cheese mold (posted on other threads) for large 2gk wheels and then makeshift containers for smaller ones. All pics of my stuff is actually poster here and their. A round Tupperware tube for brining. Dumbbells and canned food as weights for my press
Herman, you have a very compact work area! I, on the other hand, take over the kitchen. I have a 5 gal. stainless steel pot which serves nicely. I do not heat on the stove, I do a water bath in the kitchen sink, so the pot I have is pretty well the maximum size I can accommodate. I also utilize a 5 gal. enamelware canner as my sanitizing vat. I have two thermostats, a 15” and a 6” with round dials on top. The long one is for milk and the short one is to monitor the temperature of my water bath. I transport milk from the dairy to my home in used plastic gallon milk bottles. When not in use, they are filled with sanitizer - bleach water is what I’ve been using. Then there is the assortment of kitchen stuff: a 12” break knife for cutting curd, as well as a homemade curd knife for horizontal cuts. Its a stainless steel frame welded together by a friend with fishing line for the cutters. There are several measuring spoons, a 1 cup measuring cup that I use for pH testing, a large slotted plastic spoon, and a couple of small stainless steel bowls for rennet and coloring. I have a large sized stainless sieve for draining curd. My press is homemade, just a lower and upper board with 4 dowels to keep them alligned. My weights are concrete blocks of two different sizes. The mold itself is a section of 6” schedule 80 PVC with 1/16” holes drilled in it for drainage. My cave is an old refrigerator that I got for free from a friend who was going to throw it away, equipped with a thermostat - the most expensive piece of equipment to date. I also utilize a pH meter. It’s a Hanna Checker and only cost around $30.
Herman does have a very compact work space. I don’t know how much cheese I would make in that little space. I use my canner pot to make cheese in. It will hold 4 gallons of milk. I sit it in the sink and pour hot water around it. I have tried making a double boiler and cooking on the stove, however, I kept over heating everything, so I went back to the sink method. I have a borrowed ph meter, and my husband made me a cheese press. He actually made me two, after he made the first one he saw some obvious flaws so he made me another one. I use both. I have a digital thermometer that we use for beer and cheese, and some home made cheese molds. My husband made me a 6 inch mold out of some white pvc pipe, and I got a couple of 5 inch molds that are stainless steel that I got from work. I work at a sheet metal company so they just rolled up a couple pieces of pipe and drilled holes in them. I also have some 4 inch molds that I got from work that are stainless perforated metal. I use them for camembert. My husband made me some cheese boards, and some wooden things to sit the cheeses on while they dry. My presses are dutch style and I stick those round weights on the pole and measure the weight with a bathroom scale.
Yes indeed, it’s a compact workspace. But don’t forget the bath at my back, that I use for cleaning my jerrycans when I have nothing else to do
It’s enough space for me, when the curd is ready to be pressed, the left side of the worktop is empty except for my molds.
With a full pot, I can make 2 wheels of one kilo each plus 1 wheel of one pound (2 x 2.2 lbs and 1 x about 1 lbs).
By the way, I forgot to mention one other piece of equipment, which you can see on the background in the mirror on the first picture: My laptop.
I wrote a program in which I store my recipies. When I select a recipe, I have a list of ingredients based on a standard 2 lbs cheese.
When I change the amount of milk or the weight of the cheese, all amounts for the ingredients are recalculated.
On the last page of the program are all the steps to follow, in big characters so it is easy to read, the different temperatures are mentioned and for all the steps that involve a certain time, a timer with alarm is set.
I have a recipe program called Living Cook Book. I bought it, I did not write it. Back around 2002 I got severely depressed, and it lasted a couple of years. I went to doctors and psychologists and all of that stuff and I took the medicine that they gave me. Finally, I had to wean myself off of the medicine because they had me taking so many I was just drugged. The point is, I forgot a lot of stuff during that time, and one of them was how to cook. I remembered the steps, but I could no longer go in the kitchen and fix supper without a recipe. I couldn’t remember how I made stuff. So I bought a cook book program and hunted down all of the recipes that I had written or had in books around the house and put them in there. It’s great. It links to an ingredient database, makes a shopping list for you, gives you nutrition information, and all kinds of good stuff. It will even keep up with your pantry inventory if you bother to do all of that, which I don’t. I also made a cookbook in there for all of my Momma’s recipes. Momma’s recipes are an important thing in your life. I have a few from my great grandmother and grandmother. They couldn’t write, so if someone wanted their recipe they told it to them, and people have given me copies. So I got off subject again…..
The program will also export to Word. So I keep a cheese log, in Word, and I export my recipe to my log, so if I make any alterations to it I can record it in my log. If I heat the milk up too much or let something sit longer than the original recipe calls for, I record it in My Cheese Making Adventures book. When I open the cheeses, I record the date and what they tasted like and if I put them back in the cave or if we ate them all. I write down what people say about the cheese, like it’s a little salty or WOW I can’t believe you made that. I make notes in my book from things that I read on the internet. It’s a great record.
My program does not have a timer in it like Herman’s, I use one of those plastic kind with the twist dial on the front.
Oh yeah, Herman, my Daddy’s name was Herman, and my father in laws name is Herman. I thought that to be interesting.
I had a burn out a couple of years ago. I know the feeling, short memory is gone, ability to make decisions is gone, ability to concentrate is gone and it takes a long time to recover from this all.
At this moment I’m busy to add logging to my recipe program and to add the ability to convert from metric to all the weird units you all use in the US
I thought that the name Herman was originally from the German region. Any roots there Tammy?
oh, by the way Tammy: The lift bridge in Waddinxveen you were to suprised about, fell down yesterday, at least the part that is lifted. There was a power failure in that area so it was working on an aggregate. But when the bridge was lifted the aggregate stopped… Nobody hurt fortunately, but unknown damage to the structure.
I thought Herman was German also, but I cannot trace the family tree back to Germany. My maiden name was Jennings and I have traced them back to England. It just means that it was a popular name at the time that he was born. I did trace my Momma’s grandmother’s side of the family back to Ireland, but everybody else I traced back to England. My father in law doesn’t know who his grandfather was, so I can’t get anywhere with that family tree.
That’s a shame about the bridge. Hopefully they can fix it instead of tearing it down. Of course if they tear it down it means work for the bridge builders. Work is hard to come by around here right now, my husband has been out of work since the 1st of December.
Depression gets me about every 3 or 4 years, or at least it used to, until I had that one really bad spell. I have discovered that it’s easier to try and avoid than it is to recover from. My best description is that depression is a man and he hunts for me. I spend most of my life hiding, but sometimes he knocks on the door and I say darn, he found me. I keep several hobbies to occupy my mind. If I keep my brain and my hands busy I have a better chance of staying clear. And now I have learned to recognize it when it heads my way and do something to avoid it. Like going to the beach!
St John’s wort didn’t do anything for me, although I do believe in herbal cures. My husband calls it my witch doctor cures.
We are going to the beach on the 22nd. St George Island in Florida. We’ve never been there.
Unfortunately their is allot of crap “Herbs” out their. Its big business, pharmaceutical grade is what to get, not supermarket grade, theirs just fillers and stuff in their.
but I’m also sure that we use different tools and materials for making cheese. 
