Cheesemaking in Utah
The first thing people ask me when they find out I make cheese is “Wow, how do you do it?”
I like to break it down into some basic ingredients. First there is milk. Then a bacteria culture is added to the milk. And finally a rennet enzyme is added.
If that sounds complicated I like to explain to people that in early days people would take the milk from an animal and store it in the stomach of an animal. This had the natural animal rennet enzymes and the good bacteria would form and naturally separate the curds from the whey producing cheese in the warm sun. It was one of the earliest ways of food preservation and convenient to transport.
My interest peaked in 2009 when I saw a cheese making class offered at Utah State and got really excited. I dreamed of quitting my job, owning a farm and taking vacations to cheese conferences and opening up a cheese shop in Salt Lake City. My dream was quickly shattered when I realized all of this would be cutting into my ski addiction.
Fast forward a day and I decided to just buy an at home cheese making kit to see how serious I could get. The cheese making kit just had some basic instructions and I wanted to learn more specific things. So I started stumbling around the internet and pretty much found nothing or really crappy websites and really nothing that helped me. Then I took the next step and started watching documentaries and going to the library.
I found a couple of resources that I want to share with you all that really helped me learn the basics.
A great resource for me was basically everything on the New England Cheese Making Supply Co. Website. Ricki Carroll has a magnificent community and her and Jim Wallace’s expertise has been so helpful for me over the years. I would highly suggest subscribing to their email newsletter (moosletter) too!
https://cheesemaking.com/collections/cheese-kits
At the time when I was just learning there was little to no youtube resources so I had to scour the internet and heres a few of my favorite books that I have held onto. You can purchase them on Amazon & sometimes take them out from your library.
Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses by Ricki Carroll.
This book helped me learn how to go from Mozzarella to Cheddar and Gouda. I have so many notes in this book it’s ridiculous.
Mastering Basic Cheesemaking: The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home by Gianaclis Caldwell. This book goes hand and hand with the above book from Ricki Carroll. I learned so much from both books!
Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking: The Ultimate Guide for Home-Scale and Market Producers. By Gianaclis Caldwell. This book is an advanced resource once you’ve learned the basics.
Finding great milk was an issue for me starting out and if you don’t have access to great milk, well then you’re not going to make great cheese. At the time when I first started making cheese, finding supplies was difficult and limited. I live in Salt Lake City Utah and have access to this amazing store called Real Foods Market. It is also the Redmond Heritage Farm Store. They carry rennet and raw milk.
https://www.redmondfarms.com/
Note: I do not work for cheesemaking.com nor am I paid to write any of this. I just think they have the easiest to learn resources when you are starting out.
Also, if you are baller status and have time for a week vacation- Look into Utah State Cheesemaking course.