Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

Reader Question – Parmesan Recipe

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I received an interesting comment on my Greening of Gavin blog today about my Parmesan recipe.

Marianne asks;

Hi Gavin,
Did you realize the youtube video is different to your recipe. I have tried it both ways and the video is the best using light milk, I am though having a problem with the rennet after 45 min it’s still not set, any suggestions?

Well, interesting observation and question.  I watched the youtube video with the recipe in hand, and noticed that yes the milk quantities were different in the video, however the resulting milk fat content is the same.  When making Parmesan style cheese, you are looking for a fat content of around 2 to 2.5%.

I have experienced this problem of no curd set before with poor quality milk. Sometimes milk is
ultra heat treated which affects the structure of the caesin which even with the addition of calcium chloride will still not set. Find a really good source of non-homogenised milk and the 2.5ml of rennet should work better.

Liquid Vegetable Rennet

Additionally, I have just changed the recipe in each version of the ebook to reflect 1/2 teaspoon so the US measurement dosage is slightly higher. Those people who were using 2.5 ml will be fine.  This is to allow for dubious quality some commercially produced milk.   I am sorry if this has caused angst during anyones cheese making session.  Just remember though, try and source the best quality milk possible that has not been heat treated other than normal pasteurization.

If anyone with an older PDF version would like a newer version, please send me an email with proof of purchase and I will gladly send a coupon code so you can download a replacement free of charge via my shopping cart.  If you purchased via Smashwords, you will be able to download the updated version right now without additional cost.

Sincerely,

Gavin

Keep Calm and Make Cheese eBook released

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Finally, after four months of hard work, Keep Calm and Make Cheese eBook is now available for purchase. It has been a labour of love, and great fun to produce.

Here are the book description.

Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide To Cheese Making at Home

Have you ever wanted to make real cheese at home, but didn’t know where or how to start?  Well look no further, as this book makes it easy for the beginner to jump right in and make cheese.

Keep Calm, and Make Cheese steps you through the process of home cheese making with 24 tried and tested recipes for the budding home cheese maker to follow and create.

With over 60 pictures, and links to 12 of the author’s simple to follow cheese making video tutorials, the whole process becomes much easier to achieve success than you would by reading a normal cheese making book.

After reading this book you too will be able to “Keep Calm and Make Cheese”, in your very own home.

For more information about where you can buy this great beginners guide, visit my eBook page.  

As retailers begin to distribute it, I will update the eBook page with fresh links.  It will be available for Kindle in 24 hours.

A Cheese Making eBook

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So, today as I was waiting for Kim to finish editing my outdoor clay oven manuscript, I started thinking about what else I was a subject matter expert on (expert status loosely applied of course).

It took me a few minutes until I came up with the idea of writing a cheese making ebook about Home Cheese Making.  It struck me as bleeding obvious seeing that I also write a cheese making blog here at Little Green Cheese!

I know, I know.  It has all been done before, and I do have own some wonderful cheese books produced by some great authors, however there is always one thing that seems to be missing after you read the recipe.

That missing part is the taste test!  Authors rarely describe what the finished cheese tastes like, or provide tips on how to improve the cheese they have written about.  These will be accompanied by links back to my YouTube cheese making tutorials which are very popular with beginners and seasoned home cheese makers alike.   That is my angle that should make it stand out from the pack.

Of course it will have cheese making methods, all the recipes that I have modified over the years and written down, as well as some wonderful photographs, and explanation of cheese making hygiene.   And of course a section on sourcing local milk.

With the book structure already formatted, and some of the pieces in place for a comprehensive manuscript, I thought about a title.

How does “Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide to Cheese Making At Home” strike you as a title for this book?

cheese making ebook

I even took the time to produced a book cover which I am pleased with, and which my wife Kim thinks is great.

Anyway, this is what I have being doing all day, as well as keeping the garden and chickens alive, so it is definitely time for a break.  It is 33°C here at 10:17pm, which is the tail end of a two-day heat wave with more to follow during the week.  Hot, damn hot.

Time for a well-earned home-brewed Cerveza!

Update: I finished the eBook and it is now published!

Here is the link to “Keep Calm and Make Cheese” if you are interested in purchasing it.

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