Cheese Making with Poopsie – Part One – What You Need

Highly requested by Mrs. ETT, here is Poopsie’s very first post on the blog all about cheese making. Enjoy!

Source

I cannot for a second say that I’m any kind of expert at cheese making like Gavin Webber, but it’s been something I’ve been fascinated about for years and after all ‘blessed are the cheese makers…’

Gavin Webber is the YouTuber I used the most.

After reading a few books and watching a lot of YouTube videos, I bought the ingredients and tools required to make a batch of feta. I visited Green Living Australia in Brisbane but if you’re not a Brisbane local, you can order supplies from their website.

Green Living Australia is who I used to buy all of my supplies. You can visit their store in Brisbane, or order from their website.

Now because this is a blog about being frugal, there were a number of things I didn’t buy, that according to some were necessary. I bought what I thought I would definitely need and nothing more.

Cheesey things that you probably need to buy (if you don’t already have them):

• A dairy thermometer – Cheese making is a chemical process that uses live cultures and bacteria, hence the temperature of the milk is pretty crucial.
• Cheese cloth – I didn’t have anything I could use as a substitute lying around but if you do, then just use that.
• Consumables – Rennet, Lipase, Salt, Calcium Chloride. Oh and milk. Lots of milk.

You can buy a soft cheese kit from Green Living Australia which has everything you need. I didn’t buy one and got the supplies I did need for about $20 less than the kit.

Things that are recommended, but really not that necessary:

• Cheese baskets – They do make your cheese a nice square or round shape, where mine was more of a teardrop shape.  Most importantly – the taste is exactly the same.
• Cheese press – This will be a must down the track when I start making hard cheeses. But I have a cunning plan for that which I will come back and share with you (hint: it involves pallets and threaded rod).
• ‘Cheese salt’ – as far as I’m concerned sodium is sodium, so I got the cheapest non-iodised table salt I could find from the grocery store.
• Recipe book and instruction guide – YouTube makes everything easy to follow along.

Mmmm Feta. Source.

That is all you need to make delicious, preservative free Feta cheese in your own home (well, along with some pots and pans and a cooktop).

I didn’t think I’d be writing about my exploits of cheese making, so I didn’t take any photos, you’ll just have to trust me that it looked amazing and tasted likewise. Next time I make some cheese, I will be sure to take photos. They should feature in part two- the process.

Have you ever made cheese? How did it turn out?