Beginner Cheese Making Supplies

[Staestc]

I've been collecting things for cheese making such as draining/ripening mats from JoAnn, mini cave containers from Walmart and the Dollar store, egg crate light diffuser panel from Lowes, and some potential soft cheese molds from the Dollar store. My biggest issues have been hard cheese molds and a cave. I finally bit the bullet and placed orders with NEC and NewAir. The NEC order is mostly cultures, renet, CaCl2, etc., but I ordered the small and large hard cheese molds as well. I'll build a press as soon as I clean out my shop and can actually find my table saw again. The NewAir order is another 281E Wine fridge. The one I have had for the last few years has been great, but it is my cigar wineador and I am not putting cheese in there! lol

Both orders were supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I just got a text from FedEx that says the cave will be delivered today!!

 

[passedpawn]

It's nice having a dedicated cheese cave. Do you have a plan for humidity control? You can make cheese without it, but you'll have trouble getting the humidity above 70% in there.

 

[Staestc]

It's nice having a dedicated cheese cave. Do you have a plan for humidity control? You can make cheese without it, but you'll have trouble getting the humidity above 70% in there.

I will have to play with it to see what kind of humidity control I will need. This new wine fridge is identical to the thermoelectric that I have for cigars. So I won't have to deal with the humidity drops associated with compressor refrigerators. In the wineador I maintain 70% with nothing more than a small tupperware container with unscented silica cat liter. I have not had to do anything once I got to 70% for over a year. I don't think that method is capable of going over 70% though, so I will have to figure out something. For now I plan on keeping it at 70% then keeping cheeses in mini cave boxes when I need higher than that.

Also, when I set up the wineador, I got a 4 sensor temp/humidity monitor, so I won't have to invest in that. What are you doing for humidity control in yours?

 

[passedpawn]

I will have to play with it to see what kind of humidity control I will need. This new wine fridge is identical to the thermoelectric that I have for cigars. So I won't have to deal with the humidity drops associated with compressor refrigerators. In the wineador I maintain 70% with nothing more than a small tupperware container with unscented silica cat liter. I have not had to do anything once I got to 70% for over a year. I don't think that method is capable of going over 70% though, so I will have to figure out something. For now I plan on keeping it at 70% then keeping cheeses in mini cave boxes when I need higher than that.

Also, when I set up the wineador, I got a 4 sensor temp/humidity monitor, so I won't have to invest in that. What are you doing for humidity control in yours?

Bowl of water with a rag sticking out of it. Not ideal.

I'm working on designing my own ultrasonic humidifier with a built-in sensor / feedback. I want it to be 5V powered, small, with a dial that lets me set the humidity. You can make all this right now from discrete stuff, but I should be able to do it for just a few bucks. I'll probably work on it over Christmas. When it's working, I'll send you guys samples and you can test for me.

 

[Staestc]

Bowl of water with a rag sticking out of it. Not ideal.

I'm working on designing my own ultrasonic humidifier with a built-in sensor / feedback. I want it to be 5V powered, small, with a dial that lets me set the humidity. You can make all this right now from discrete stuff, but I should be able to do it for just a few bucks. I'll probably work on it over Christmas. When it's working, I'll send you guys samples and you can test for me.

Cool, would be very much appreciated.

I was wrong about my wine fridge being delivered today. It was a bunch of other stuff that have nothing to do with me (Christmas presents for others, lol). So now I wait another day, which is probably good, because I need to clean up the area next to my cigar fridge to make room for the cheese fridge?

When washing rinds, knocking down mold, etc., is it messy enough that I will wish my cheese cave was in a place more conducive to messy processes, or will just taking the cheese to the kitchen to work on it, then returning it to the cave in the man cave work out okay?

 

[shelly_belly]

My cave is a chest freezer. I wash the rinds on top of the freezer in a 16 inch diameter tupperware-like container that has sides about 3 inches high. It's easy to clean and sanitize. There wont be a lot of liquid spillage as you just wet your small piece of cheesecloth with your wash that's in its own container and wipe down the cheese with the cloth. Or, in severe cases you might be scrubbing it with a small brush (I use a toothbrush). I then set them on top of the freezer on plastic draining mats and direct a small fan on them for a short period of time to dry them off. It's probably one of the least messy activities in cheese-making. Mind you I only have 6 or 7 cheeses to manage at this time