Cheese Making Starter Checklist

1. Gather your supplies

• A large heavy pot
• A thermometer
• Cheesecloth and a colander
• Good fresh whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)

2. Your first project

3. Your first month, step by step

• Week 1: Make a fresh cheese to build confidence. Warm whole milk, stir in an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, and strain the curds through cheesecloth to make ricotta or paneer. You will have real, tasty cheese within an hour.
• Week 2: Try homemade mozzarella. This teaches you to heat milk gently, watch the temperature, and work the curds. It is a fun stretch-and-pull cheese, and a great next step up from a simple strained cheese.
• Week 3: Learn the building blocks of aged cheese: cultures and rennet. Read up on what each one does, gather a basic starter culture and rennet, and understand sanitation and temperature so you are ready for a pressed cheese.
• Week 4: Make your first cheddar or colby. Press the curds into a small wheel, then brine or wax it and set it aside to age. You have now walked the whole path from a pot of milk to a cheese that will only get better with time.

4. Mistakes to avoid

• Using ultra-pasteurized or non-dairy milk. UHT and many store cartons will not set into good curds. Use fresh whole milk that is pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), or raw milk if it is legal and safe where you live.
• Getting the temperature wrong. Cheese is fussy about heat, so use a reliable thermometer, warm the milk slowly, and hold the temperatures the recipe calls for instead of guessing.
• Poor sanitation. Cheese is a living culture, so any stray bacteria can ruin a batch. Wash and sanitize every pot, spoon, cloth, and mold before you start.
• Rushing the aging. Young cheese pulled too early is bland or rubbery. Give wheels the weeks or months they need, and resist cutting in too soon.
• Cutting or stirring the curds too hard. Rough handling breaks up the curd and loses butterfat and yield. Cut cleanly and stir gently.
• Skipping accurate measuring of culture and rennet. Too much or too little throws off the whole batch, so measure carefully and follow the recipe amounts.