/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>13245236
Simple, young cheeses, yes.

Aged ones, I don't think so, because you will need a separate refrigerator and other stuff to control temperature, humidity, etc.

But it also depends on your budget, of course.

>>13245236
No. It is not cost-effective. I have heard it is a fulfilling experience.

>>13245236
Making your own cheese is easy.

Making it actually fucking edible... Not so much

>>13245236
It's supposed to be fairly easy to make farmer's/cottage cheese. What kind of cheese are you trying to make? And how much cheese are we talking?

Yeah, but you will have spent a lot of money on practice before you're producing stuff that's as good as expensive aged cheese. Fresh cheeses are easy to get right, though.

>>13245236
Some require 25 liters to make a kilo of cheese I don't think it's worth it at all. I'm not even sure it can be cost-effective for fresh cheeses considering how cheap they already are.

>>13245250
Simple cheeses like farmer's and cottage then eventually cheddar and brie.

You can make a couple but the expertise and time taken to do it it’s probably worth buying cheese from local cheese makers and support them to make high quality product.

It’s fun to make it but I want different cheese all the time so I don’twont hace access to high quality milks and prepping it for different cheeses seems like a pain in the ass

>>13245246
I have researched this several times over the years. It is sadly not cost effective to make your own cheese. I'm sure fresh young cheeses are better but it's actually more expensive.
>>13245245
It's the opposite IMO. You cannot make young cheese for cheaper than you can buy it.
But for aged cheeses, which are typically expensive and a luxury, you should be able to make your own for significantly less, but of equal or superior quality.
Same is true of cured meats like prosciutto. It's not hard and you can get equivalent to a $400 ham pretty easy.
Same is true with cheese. You can duplicate a $1000 wheel of cheese for 1/50th the cost.

Mozarella? Nope. No way. You can't even beat cheap supermarket prices.

>>13245352
Sure, if you put some investment and have the infrastructure (which can be minimal) you can beat market prices for aged cheeses and cured meats. However, you have to find a good source material (meats and milk) and also factor in the time you invest.

All the same, it's a great hobby that I wish one day to be in.

I wanna make fake parmesan but I am too brainlet

>>13245352
I make cheese for a living and this post is spot on on the economics. I will say fresh cheeses made at home will be much better than stuff at the grocery store.

>>13246370
What cheeses would be good to make at home, oh humble cheeseman?
Also -- does such a thing as cheese made from multiple animals milks exists? Like a goat-cow cheese or a sheep-goat cheese?

>>13246424
What the fuck anon there's no such thing as a goat-cow
sheep and goat are just different breeds of the same animal so their milk is interchangeable

>>13246496
he's asking about blends

>>13246424
Fresh cheeses are easiest and yeah it's super common for old rustic farm cheeses to use multiple milks. Sheep/cow makes fantastic queso fresco and it's great on toast in the morning.

>>13246496
>sheep and goat are just different breeds of the same animal
????

>>13246424
^

>>13246513
Like labradors and golden retrievers, they're both the same species

>>13246496
>sheep and goat are just different breeds of the same animal so their milk is interchangeable
Please tell me you're only pretending to be this retarded.

>>13246539
oh look
I'm replying to an idiot

Wtf is happening in this thread lmfao

>>13246496
Holy shit thanks for this reply

>>13246508
Thanks man

>>13245352
>But for aged cheeses, which are typically expensive and a luxury, you should be able to make your own for significantly less, but of equal or superior quality.
Tell me more

>>13247416
Because of supply-demand
The supply of 25-year old cheese is pretty low right? (there’s not much of it around)
The demand for 25-year old cheese is considerably higher (lots of people want it, despite there not being much of it)
So the price is very high, because there’s high-demand and low-supply.

Assuming you can properly create a cheese, that will actually be high-quality, you can create a 25-year old cheddar for basically the same price as an unaged cheddar (aside from things like refrigeration costs). Obviously to create a wheel of cheese, it will require basically the same materials. The only difference is keeping it around in ideal conditions for years. If you already are running a machine that creates these ideal conditions for you, then you aren’t necessarily spending any extra money because you would’ve been spending that money either way. So voila, aged cheese is literally the same price to make as unaged cheese, but since so few people do it (because so few cheeses age properly and only specialized cheese makers accomplish this) the price is very high. Also nobody wants to wait 25 whole years of there life to eat a cheese they made 25 years in advance.

>>13247450
It's not just supply. The price has to factor in the time and labor expended on the period of aging. Storing a cheese in ideal conditions for five or more years and making sure the process is not going wrong is not free.

>>13247464
Yeah I know m8, I was just trying to emphasize why economically it makes more sense to create an aged cheese than a fresh one. There’s still a fuckton of profit on aged cheese though so don’t pretend the high-cost is all about “labor” because if anything that’s simply the reason the supply is low in the first place. If there wasn’t a high-demand (and thus, profit to be made), then nobody would give enough of a fuck to make aged cheese.

>>13247450
Fuck. I better start now.
How much can you get away with in terms of ideal condition though? You can't just stick it in any old fridge and be done with it right

>>13247484
I have absolutely no single idea how to actually do it myself, I’m not the cheese maker. Also, for a regular person who never makes cheese, it’s pretty difficult not to fuck up and end up wasting more money. I just generally understand the process behind cheese-making and economics.

You’re only saving money assuming
1. You’re already running a cheese-refrigerator (or whatever the fuck it’s called)
2. You actually can make a good cheese
3. You can actually make a good cheese that will age properly
4. You can properly maintain the conditions for aging for long-periods of time without any critical failures (I imagine failing to maintain humidity/temp can easily fuck up the aging process very fast)
You’ll be spending a decent amount of time on the whole ordeal to where it may very well be not worth it whatsoever.

>>13246496
>>13246424
Cheese made from blended milk is a thing. Cow milk is the cheapest milk by far so you can imagine that cheese producers are using cow milk liberally whenever they can get away with it in cheeses that require goat or sheep milk, or both goat and sheep milk.

I'd say the most people in the US have never ate a cheese that didn't have cow milk in it unless they are importing cheese from EU countries where there are laws to protect the integrity of cheeses.

>>13246352
Parmesan needs a year of aging to taste good, better start planning your cheese cellar

Its ten liters of milk for just 1 kilo of cheese.
Plus all the cooking effort.
Time consuming for something that ain't that needed.

>>13247515
ill add to this
a normal person will not have a clue of when an aged cheese has hit its peak. you cant just take a cheese thats a year old and leave it for 5 years. Cheese will have a peaking point in taste, and needs to have the correct make up to even make it worthwhile aging.

Thats why when you buy say a 5 year old cheese, its at its most flavorful and its only downhill from there. If it still had room to grow it would be aging more.

>>13245498
>All the same, it's a great hobby that I wish one day to be in.
Me too
>>13247464
>>13247474
If you have a good basement, a cheese cave is trivial to make. Larger = more resilient to temp and humidity changes. This means it won't take much to maintain conditions, if power fails it will maintain longer, and changes aren't rapid so you don't get suprised.
You can also build a nice Italian cantina down there for cured and aged meats. You want them separate but the conditions are nearly the same.
Cinderblock walls filled with simple sand, a good insulated roof, simple and easy Env Control products are all you need.
That is my goal.

>>13251433
Do cheese caves double well as lagering caves/wine cellars?

>>13250830
>only downhill from there
you don't say

>>13252002
SHAZBOT

>>13251978
No but I think a curing cantina does.

>>13245352
>I have researched this several times over the years.
Autism Alert!

>>13252795
This, everyone with an IQ above room temperature must be autistic