Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

How to Sanitize Your Cheese Making Equipment

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Cleanliness and sanitization go hand in hand before you start your cheese making session.  But how do you ensure that you sanitize without using harmful ingredients?  In this post, I am going to show you a greener way to sanitize your cheese making equipment.

Make sure that you clean every item in hot soapy water first, then rinse off with clean tap water.  Make sure there isn’t any oils or cheese stone on the surfaces of your equipment.

Once all your cheese making equipment is clean, then it is on to the sanitizing stage.  For that, all you need is boiling water and white vinegar!  Check out the YouTube video for full details.

 

Pretty simple and all without the use of bleach or iodophor.  For all your plastic molds and baskets, just spray with white vinegar and allow to dry.  That will take care of most bacteria or yeasts.

All it takes is a bit of common sense.  If or when you are unsure whether a piece of equipment is not clean enough, then go through the process again to make sure it’s okay to use.

I’ve been using this method for years, with no issues, or contaminated cheese.  I have also not had any cross contamination when using different starter cultures and moulds between cheese making sessions.

Sanitzing your cheese making equipment

There’s just one caveat.  If you intend on selling your cheese, then to ensure compliance with any regulations, you will need to take your cleaning and sanitization to the next level.  There are different rules and regulations in each country or state, so make sure you contact the relevant regulatory body for more information if you want to take the next step towards the commercialisation of your cheese making operations.

However, for the home cheese maker, my simple process to sanitize your cheese making equipment is fine for home consumption.

For more tips about cleanliness and sanitization check out this post titled .

How to Make Paneer

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This simple and easy to make cheese is traditionally used in South Asian cooking, and only has three ingredients.  Let me show you how to make Paneer, as it is certainly not one to leave out of your cheese making repertoire.

Paneer is a fresh cheese common to South Asia, especially in Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisines. It is an unripened, acid-set, non-melting cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice, vinegar, or any other food acids.

How to make Paneer
Paneer after cutting into cubes, ready for cooking.

Paneer

Traditional recipe provided by Neha. Makes about 500 gm (1 lb) of Paneer.

Ingredients

  • 2 Litres (2 quarts) Full Cream Milk
  • 6 Tablespoons full fat yoghurt (greek or natural)
  • 4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Method

  1. Add the milk to a 4 litre (1 gal) pot
  2. Bring to milk to the boil
  3. When the milk starts to rise, lower to a simmer and add in the yogurt and stir well.
  4. Add the lemon juice whilst stirring and you will see the milk curdle into curds and whey.  The whey should be a clear yellow colour.
  5. Keep simmering for 2 minutes whilst stirring, during which time the curds will thicken.
  6. Strain the cheese through a tight weave cheesecloth.
  7. Flatten the cheese in the cloth by placing a board on top and adding about 2 kg (4.4lbs) of weight for 30 minutes.
  8. Cut into cubes ready for cooking.  This cheese will store for 2 weeks in an airtight container in the kitchen fridge.

The addition of the yoghurt adds a little more flavour to an otherwise bland cheese.  The beauty of this cheese is that it doesn’t melt, so can be used in curries and dhal dishes.

To help you recreate Paneer, I have created a Paneer YouTube video which you can watch below.  It runs for [5:48] minutes.

This cheese is ideal for the newbie curd nerd.  Now that you know how to make Paneer, why not give it try.  It can even be eaten plain.  My son Ben can’t get enough of it and my first batch didn’t even make it into a meal!

Cotswold Cheese Taste Test

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Here’s a cheeky little Cotswold Cheese taste test that I recorded when I cracked open a 6 month old Cotswold cheese.  This cheese has dried onion flakes and dried chives added during the milling process and imparts an amazing flavour throughout the cheese.

This cheese is a staple part of a Ploughman’s Lunch, often on the menu in English Country Pubs, served with crusty bread and a pickled onion.

It’s one of our favourites here at home and is often served up to guests.

 

If you want to learn how to make this delicious cheese, check out the post about it here; Cotswold Cheese Video Tutorial and Verdict.

You can find the full recipe in my eBook, Keep Calm & Make Cheese.  Alternatively, if you live in Australia and NZ, you can purchase a bound version of the book here, exclusive to Little Green Workshops.

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