Help Line
& Frequently Asked Questions

• My cultures have arrived, but the cooler blocks have melted, and everything feels warm, is this OK ?
• How do I store the culture, and other cheese making ingredients ?
• How do I test my rennet ?
• How much culture do I use ?
• How do I know if my cheese is dry enough to wax ?
• What do I do about mold on my cheese, while drying ?
• What do I do about mold on my cheese, under the wax ?
• What can I use as a "Cheese Cave" environment to age my cheeses ?
• I have a Green Living Australia "Starter Kit", but I want to make more advanced cheeses, where do I get the instructions ?
• My cheese has a bitter taste. What could have gone wrong ?
• Double boilers are expensive, what else can I use ?
• How do I pasteurise my milk ?
• I'm planning to buy a Hard Cheese Kit, do I need Cheese Press ?

 

If you have a question, or require help with your cheese making, please call (07) 3133 1673 or email Valerie with as much information about your question or problem as possible at valerie@greenlivingaustralia.com.au

My cultures have arrived, but the cooler blocks have melted, and everything feels warm, is this OK ?
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Yes !! Just store the items "as advised" as soon as possible.

To be honest, most cheese making ingredients and yoghurt cultures are shipped to us from overseas, without any cooling, and we just store the items correctly, once they get to us.

What we wish to avoid is anyone getting their yoghurt or cheese cultures, and storing them in the pantry for many months, without even knowing that they needed to be put in the fridge or freezer.

Perhaps we are "overcompensating" with cooler blocks, and labels all over the place, but we do know someone who kept an unopened cheese kit in a hot pantry for two years.

How do I store the culture, and other cheese making ingredients ?
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The dry items like cultures and rennet tablets should be stored in a freezer, and liquid items like liquid rennet should be stored in a refrigerator.

We supply sterile jars free with the culture sachets, and these are for the storage of the cultures once the sachets are opened. We recommend not to open the sachet until you are about to make your first cheese.

When opening the sachet of culture we recommend bringing it to room temperature first. This will reduce the effect of the condensation causing some of the culture being stuck to the inside of the sachet. Cut all the way across the top of the sachet, then concertina it, and pour the culture into the sterile jar supplied.

Please be carefull to close your jar properly, to keep the moisture out while it is in the freezer.

How do I test my rennet ?
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Heat one cup of milk to 32C, and if using homogenised milk, add 2 drops of Calcium Chloride. (Do not add citric acid.)
Dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet (or 1/4 tsp. liquid rennet) in 225ml of cool water and stir well. From this diluted rennet take 2 tablespoons and add it to the milk at 32C. Stir gently from the bottom to the top for 30 seconds.

If the rennet is working, the milk surface will begin to firm or form a slight film after two minutes. After six minutes, it will have formed a curd that will hold a knife cut.

How much culture do I use ?
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Our Mini Measuring Spoons give a pretty accurate dose measurement.

With our MOT 092 Thermophilic and MO 030 Mesophilic cultures the sachet is suitable for 100 litres of milk, and will give twelve standard doses, if following our instructions. A heaped “Smidgen” (1/32nd tspn) will give twelve doses from these sachets.

With our MO 036 Mesophilic culture the sachet is suitable for 1000 litres of milk, and will give over 100 doses, if following our instructions. A heaped "Drop" (1/64th tspn) will give approximately 100 doses from this sachet.

It is a good idea to record how many doses you get from your culture to confirm that you are measuring correctly.

How do I know if my cheese is dry enough to wax ?
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Once the cheese has been pressed it is removed form the mould and set out to dry on a wooden cheese board. Drying can take several days, during which time the cheese is turned to ensure even drying. When “dry” the cheese should both appear, and feel dry to the touch.

What do I do about mold on my cheese, while drying ?
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Because of the high humidity in some parts of Australia, drying can sometimes take more than just a "few days", so there is an increased chance of mould spores in the air landing on your cheese. To remove the mould simply wipe it off with a vinegar moistened cloth.

What do I do about mold on my cheese, under the wax ?
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So when removing the wax, you find some mould has grown on your cheese ... just cut it of and enjoy the rest of your cheese adventure.

What can I use as a "Cheese Cave" environment to age my cheeses ?
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Soft cheeses, including Feta are best kept in a standard refridgerator. Hard cheeses, camemberts, blue cheeses etc. need to age in a humid environment between 10° and 15° C.
We use an old fridge that has been converted to run at these higher temperatures. You can also use a wine fridge.

We run our "Cheese Cave" at 12° C

This fridge cost us about $200,
and the "Refco" thermostat from Actrol Parts,
cost under $50 at the time.

We keep the camemberts, bries, and blue cheeses in Decor storage boxes that act as enclosed environments, these keep the humidity up, and prevent the various moulds cross contaminating the cheeses, or the fridge. To help maintain the humidity a bowl of water can be placed on the bottom of the fridge.

I have a Green Living Australia "Starter Kit", but I want to make more advanced cheeses, where do I get the instructions ?
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You can get away with making the more simple cheeses in our starter kit, with the limited instructions supplied ... but our kit is just that, a "starter kit" ... as you move onto more complex cheeses, a much greater depth of knowledge is needed, such as can be found in the Ricki Carroll book, "Home Cheese Making" .....

Valerie has a number of specialty cheese books, that she has read from cover to cover, and has made many different cheeses .... but still refers to to her "cheese bible" ... Home Cheese Making, constantly .... if you are not making cheese every day, and Valerie is always complaining about work interrupting her cheese making, you just can't get away without having a good, comprehensive reference book at hand.

My cheese has a bitter taste. What could have gone wrong ?
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Too much rennet can give the cheese a bitter taste. Reduce the amount of rennet in your next attempt at this cheese.

Contamination due to poor hygiene can cause a bitter taste. This can happen to the best of us so be sure your working environment is clean and that you have sterilized all your utensils. If you are using raw milk, pasteurise it before making your cheese to ensure that there are no unwanted pathogens in your milk.

Your milk became to acidic. This is caused by the milk over ripening once you have added your culture. Over ripening is cased by adding too much culture or leaving it to ripen for too long. Be careful with your measuring of the culture and watch your timing.

Double boilers are expensive, what else can I use ?
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A picture says a thousand words ...

These two large stockpots came as part of a set of four from our local hardware store, with the smaller two suitable for smaller milk batches, and these two suitable for up to 10 or even 12 litres.

How do I pasteurise my milk ?
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If you have access to farm fresh, raw milk and you need to pasteurise your milk, use a stainless steel pot, inside another pot or water, to act as a double boiler, and bring the milk to 63 degrees C. Maintain this temperature for 30 minutes. Do not let the milk drop below this temperature, as if you do, all pathogens in the milk may not be killed. Try not let the milk go much above 65 degrees, as if you do, you may reduce the quality of the curd when making your cheese.

Gently warm the milk to 63° to 65° C, maintain for 30 minutes.

Cooling the milk rapidly in a sink of cold water.

Remove the pot of the heat and place it in a sink of ice cold water and cool the milk quickly to the temperature that you need to make your cheese.

I'm planning to buy a Hard Cheese Kit, do I need Cheese Press ?
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We recommend making the cheeses in order of the the cheeses in the instruction book, as this is an ideal way to learn ... start with the simpler more forgiving cheeses and move on up the difficulty curve. The earlier cheeses in the instructions either do not require pressing, or only need very small weights such as the 2 litre milk bottle, as seen here ..

As people progress in their cheese making adventures they may, and hopefully do, enjoy the cheese making to such an extent that they do wish to move on to cheeses that require more extensive pressing ... at this stage some sort of "press" is required .... and I put the quotation marks around the word press as this does not have to be a mechanical press such as is shown in the optional extras below the Hard Cheese Kit .. but can simply be heavier weights ... we have seen cheese pressed with nothing more than a bucket of water on top of a soup tin, on top of the follower.

So for the beginner, or those of us with a bit of the "MacGyver" in us, there is no need to buy as press straight off the bat ... so this does give you the chance to start making cheeses without the additional expense.