The Making Of: Gouda Cheese

This article describes my first attempt at making cheese. I picked up a copy of Cheesemaking Made Easy: 60 Delicious Varieties from the local library for instruction. Most (all?) of the recipes start with 2 gallons of whole milk and end up creating 2 lbs of cheese. The shopping lists and instructions below are for creating 2 lbs of Gouda from 2 gallons of supermarket whole milk.

Before you Start Gathering Material

• The author points out, specifically, that aluminum cookware should not be used as it can impart a taste to the cheese.
• A good thermometer is very important. The cheese making process appears to be sensitive to temperature.
• Use a glass bowl for the brining process. I had a couple spots of oxidization form in my stainless steel bowl.

Hardware List

• 12qt stainless steel pot
• stainless steel ladle
• stainless steel curd knife
  • I bought a 14" but a 12" would be fine for a 12qt pot
  • Also sold as an "icing spatula"
  • Amazon.com link
• stainless steel food thermometer
• glass bowl
  • used for brining
  • should be able to hold 1 gallon of liquid
• cheese cloth
  • I don't think the grade really matters too much for this recipe.
• cheese press
  • You can build one of these for pretty cheap
  • I'll talk about it below.
• cheese drying board
  • Can be made pretty easily.
  • Discussed with the cheese press.
• (optional) 10 gallon pot for steam sanitizing your cheese press
• (optional) propane patio stove for the 10 gallon pot

Ingredients

• 2 gallons of whole (vitamin D) milk
• 1.25 lbs of course salt
• water
• cheese rennet tablets
  • do NOT use junket rennet tables as they sell to make ice cream
  • can use rennet liquid instead
  • can be bought off Amazon.com
• mesophilic cheese starter culture
  • can be bought off Amazon.com
• Vinegar
• Sanitizer

The Cheese Press

It is necessary to use some kind of cheese press to press excess liquid (whey) out of our cheese. The book referenced several types of presses including 1 that is pretty simple to make at home. I opted to build a version of the home cheese press and you can see the results below. If you build a similar press, the book states that well seasoned hardwoods are ideal materials and specifically calls out birch and maple. I made my press and cheese board out of birch plywood from the hardware store.

• LEFT: The Base
  • This is made from 3 12" dowel rods and a 10"x10" birch plywood board. I drilled 3 holes HALF-WAY through using a spade bit. I then used a normal round bit to put a small hole in the center and a similar hole in the center of the dowel rod. This allowed me to have a little cup for the rod to fit into as well as being able to screw it together.
• CENTER BACK: The Mold
  • The gray plastic part is the "mold" and it made from a 1 gallon bucket with the top rim and bottom cut off and holes poked in the sides.
  • I first cut off the top (as there was a nice lip to guide my blade) using a utility knife with a fresh blade.
  • I then used a permanent marker held in a bench vice at the correct height to draw a nice straight line around the bottom of the bucket as a guide. Then I cut it with the same knife.
  • Lastly I poked holes in the side. Make sure you POKE the holes (from the inside to the outside) and don't use a drill. The poking method makes for a nice smooth inside surface. If you use a drill you will never get the inside smooth.
• CENTER FRONT: The Top Plate
  • This top that slides over the dowel rods. The holes were drilled with a spade bit. Make sure you use the base board as a guide when you drill these holes. I actually clamped both boards together and drilled the holes together.
• RIGHT: The Follower
  • The round part is made by using the bottom (slightly smaller diameter) of the cut bucket mold as a guide to trace out a circle onto a piece of birch plywood. I then used a jigsaw to cut it out and sanded it a bit to smooth it out.
  • The block part is actually a cut down piece of 6"x6" that I had available. Anything that will give you a spacer so that your top plate can press down on the follower will work here
  • It isn't necessary but I glued these 2 pieces together as well as weighing and labeling this piece so I could accurately press my cheese.

Cheese Making Procedure

1. Disinfect and Sanitize
   • Cheese, like any fermented food, is created by the action of micro-organisms and as such you are really creating an environment that is ideal for the growth of bacteria. Good bacteria makes cheese (or beer or bread or kimchi). Bad bacteria smells, can make you sick, and will ruin your cheese. Therefore it is vital to ensure that you don't introduce and unintentional foreign bacteria into your cheese making process. For this reason we make sure to sanitize all of the equipment that we'll be using.
   • Cheese Press & Cheese Drying Board
     1. Wooden items need to be sanitized using steam. A topical sanitizer (like we'll use for the rest of the tools) can't adequately penetrate the porous wood. Wooden items should be steam sanitized for 20 minutes.
     2. I setup a 10 gallon pot on a propane patio stove with about 2 inches of water in the bottom, fired it up and waited for the water to boil.
     3. Once the water was at a rolling boil, I placed my Cheese Press base in upside down, put the lid back on, and left it for 20 minutes.
     4. After the time was up I pulled it out, added a bit more water, and placed the other wooden components of the Cheese Press, as well as the Cheese Drying Board, into the pot for another 20 minutes.
        
   • Everything Else
     1. For everything else I used a No-Rinse Sanitizer left over from beer brewing. The book talked about using a Bleach/Water Solution (2 tbsp bleach to 1 gallon water) or steaming/boiling metal utensils for 5 minutes. If you opt to use the Bleach/Water Solution, ensure you rinse off equipment afterwards so the bleach doesn't kill the good cheese bacteria.
     2. I also chose to have a little tray of sanitizer to leave my equipment in as well as having a bowl of the sanitizer water to dip my hands periodically.