Cheesemaking doesn’t require a lot of equipment, but it does require a few things that I didn’t really have lying around. And given that I am an avid thrift-shopper, I was not super excited about the prospect of going to buy actual equipment just to try out a new hobby that I was not even guaranteed to like, or be good at. So, here’s some of my solutions to the equipment required in cheesemaking.
Cheesecloth
Not to start this out on a bad note or anything, but this one you really do need to just buy. Nothing else is gonna work as well, so unless you have a loom and the necessary know-how to make your own, just buy some. It’s cheaper to buy in bulk online, and cut strips from a large piece as you need it.
Form & Follower
Ok, this one you don’t need to buy. A form is exactly what it sounds like, the thing that will shape your cheese, and a follower is a weight that you put on top of your cheese after it’s put in the form. If you’ve got two plastic milk jugs laying around, or any other plastic container that you don’t mind mangling, you can use these. For the form, use a needle or a pencil or something and poke holes in the bottom and sides of the container. When you put your cheese in here, the holes will allow the whey to drain out of it. For the follower, just make sure you have something that fits neatly in the top of the form and has a solid bottom. You want it to evenly push against the cheese so you don’t end up with any weird shapes. You can use whatever you like to weigh it down, filling it with water, rocks, bags of flour, etc. I use a physics textbook.
Drying Rack
This is probably the trickiest one to DIY if you don’t already have a wire rack. What you need is something that you can set your form & follower on to let the whey drain away from it. Personally, I use my bread cutting board because it works well enough, but that’s hardly a common household item. If you’ve got a few cutting boards (or plates), you could probably make a passable set-up by putting them in the sink, sloped downwards towards the drain, and pressing the cheese in between them. That way, the top board would act as a follower to get the whey out. You won’t be able to shape the cheese much that way, though.
Stockpot/Slow Cooker
A slow cooker is probably the easiest way to make cheese, since it has a warm setting that will keep the milk at the proper temperature and it will heat up fairly evenly, but it’s definitely not the only option. Any pot will work, as long as it’s big enough to hold the milk. Don’t worry about material, the only thing to consider is the shape. If you’re making rennet cheese, you probably want one with as even a shape as possible, since the curds will form in the shape of the pan and having a weird shape might make them more difficult to get out later. Beyond that, just pick whatever pot is handiest.
Curd Knife
I didn’t actually include this in my equipment list for anything because I think it’s really stupid, but it’s in a lot of other online recipes for cheese. Given that I personally usually look at 2-3 recipes for something before I try to make it, I assume other people also do. If that’s true, and you’re looking at both my recipes and some other ones and wondering why I don’t mention a curd knife, it’s because I think it’s dumb. Just use a normal knife. As long as the blade is long enough to reach the bottom, it’ll work. Use a fucking bread knife, it doesn’t matter. I think it’s silly to have a whole utensil devoted to a single task when it’s not even that much of an improvement over the generic version of the utensil.
Other Posts
Vegetarian Feta Recipe
Non Vegetarian Feta Recipe
Notes & Tweaks
Uses for Whey
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