There might be someone cheaper, but I find Hoeggers and New England Cheesemaking to be fairly comparable in prices. There will be some things that are cheaper at one place or the other, but they are fairly similar. There are some things that you need to buy (rennet for sure) and other things you can make (cheese molds out of plastic containers etc). I make soft cheese most of the time and for this pretty much all I buy from a cheesemaking supply are rennet and butter muslin (for draining cheese). Everything else I can get locally or make. I use buttermilk as my culture. Basic summer soft cheese recipe ~1 gallon of goats' milk 2 cups of cultured buttermilk 1 drop of liquid rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup of cool water Bring milk to room temperature (75-80 degrees F). Add buttermilk and rennet dissolved in water. Cover. Let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours depending on how tart you like your cheese (note, cheese becomes tart faster with warmer temps, and slower with cooler temps). Line a colander with butter muslin and pour cheese into the colander. Hang to drain if possible. If that is not possible, tie the butter muslin in the colander over the cheese and every couple of hours use a spoon to scrape the cheese away from the muslin so it can continue to drain. Drain for 8-12 hours. After the whey has drained off, add salt and any herbs or flavors you want to add. I like to mix in strawberry allfruit or honey and canned crushed pineapple. I also like adding chives or things like that to the plain cheese.
I use Dairy Connection now too after working with Ricki since the mid 70's They now have New England prices and this Arky would rather not participate in their cost of living! DC lets you get larger packages too and that really helped me when I was making chevre every day. Lee
THANKS , I will check out both sources above What do ya'll use for rennet... the vegetable or regular rennet ?? Mine went out of date and I added more rennet and now the cheese is really hard.. lol! Each year after the milk season,I have forgot how to make cheese :blush and haft to relearn all over again , I think I need to stick with one cheese type all season and really get it right .
I prefer liquid animal, but I'm not vegan. If using vegi. tabs. just mind the recipes as I had lots of trouble with an occasional book's cheese recipe's discrepancies in rennet amount. If you keep a cheese log, that'll help with having to relearn everything every season. Megan
"having to relearn everything every season" That would be ME! I always think I will remember - yah sure! I use the Chymostar rennet solution. Lee
I have to write everything down or I don't remember squat :sigh and sometimes even then, I can't remember where I wrote it! :crazy I've been using the "imported" rennet from Hoeggers, and liked it a lot as my cheese seemed to be smoother/creamier, but I'm wanthing to get cultures from either Cheesemaking or Dairysupply and neither of them offer it, sooo, I'm thinking of using the organic vegetable that they both offer and see how that works... Anyone use it? do you like it? Stacy
I use regular liquid rennet. I've read a lot about making non-animal rennet from I think Golden rod. Dag......its golden something, having a, "brain burp!" See Stacy, I am right there with ya! :rofl
Ha! I am still using liquid rennet I got from Vicki 3 or 4 years ago don't have a clue what kind it is but it works
Vegetable rennet supposedly can be made from stinging nettle. I think there was a sticky here that's gone now about it. Tom
When my rennet from Hoeggers went out of date ,I made cheese but it did not curdle using the recipe amount and I doubled the amount and it was rubber :really so if you add more rennet,just add a small amount more.
