Making your own cheese in Thailand (1): day 1 to 3
As a result of a weekly conversation that Lung addie has with a Portuguese friend, Lung addie came up with the idea of making cheese himself. As a Portuguese, he wanted to eat goat's cheese, which is not easy to find in Thailand, just like goat's milk in larger quantities.
I suggested to him that I, as a lover of kitchen experiments, should look into this. I thought that my preference, to make an attempt myself, was cheese made from cow's milk. Much easier to obtain and, I thought, if it works with cow's milk, it will also work with goat's milk. I had never done this before and I have to admit: my first experiment was a huge failure. I learned a lot from it and the second attempt was very successful.
Lung addie found a good, acceptable and simple recipe on the internet for making 'BRIE' yourself. Brie, a type of cheese that I quite like and regularly buy in Thailand. That recipe did use 'raw milk', so the first question is: is this also possible with pasteurized milk as it is available almost everywhere, even in 2 liter bottles, and raw milk is not. The answer is YES, it just takes longer to ferment. Pasteurized milk contains all the ingredients of raw milk but is only 'biologically dead'. This means that the self-introduced and necessary bacteria need more time to multiply.
This article is of course not gospel and is a personal experience. Keep in mind that this is about a 'soft cheese' and not a 'hard cheese'. The two procedures are completely different.
It may serve as a guideline for TB readers.
I am making this article in several steps as otherwise it will be too long. So this article:
Step 1: day 1 to 3
You need:
- I assumed 6 liters of pasteurized whole milk.
- rennet: available at Lazada (Rennet Cheese) in 10ml bottles and to process 6 liters of milk you only need +/-2ml (costs 195 THB/10ml)
- 1 jar of natural yoghurt (without flavor additions such as strawberries...)
- Brie: to obtain the typical brie flavor and white mold layer you need some mold, specific to brie.
So the first time you buy some Brie and cut off the mold, you eat the rest.
Method:
- you pour the yoghurt into a cup, add some milk, the Brie mold and the rennet. Grind this with a hand blender.
- you pour this mixture into the 6 liters of milk and mix again with the hand blender. Place your best in a large clear glass or plastic container. Then you can watch the further progress.
- you simply leave this for at least 3 days. (with raw milk that is 1 day)
- the ideal temperature is +/- 30C and I almost always have that here in the 'cooler season'. So just on the kitchen table.
- you cover the pot with a damp cloth to keep the flies off. Do not seal airtight because the fermentation process requires air (oxygen).
- on the second day you will already have a nice layer of 'curd'. You will make some incisions in it with a knife so that the 'whey', which is underneath, can easily penetrate. Don't really mix the whole thing.
Important: DO NOT add SALT to this mixture. Salt: NaCl
The Cl (chloride) is a major killer of bacteria and you still need it after fermentation for further ripening.
That's all you have to do from day 1 to 3.
The rest is for another article.
Goat's milk is also widely sold here.
It is only available with the small packages of alternative milk.
soymilk et cetera 7/11 but also Tesco.
My wife usually buys it from the vet for the dog in slightly larger pieces.
Clean the hobby kitchen.
Thanks Lung Addie, I'll give it a try too. Wait for the 2nd explanation.
Thank you very much, we hope to read the next episodes soon, this is really appreciated.
Dear Lung Addie,
What I miss is the addition of calcium chloride to promote a firmer curd or quark as you call it.
I'm curious about the continuation of your adventure.
Pjotter.
Dear Pjotter,
This is about a 'soft cheese' and you don't need that hard curd (gord) at all. Don't put CaCl in it.
Hello Lung Addie, first of all, it's nice to be able to make cheese in this way. But now a quick question, you are talking about “1 jar of natural yoghurt”, how many grams is this?
Do
Dear Will
those are 150gr jars. For sale everywhere.
as rennet you can also do it with baker's yeast or dried yeast in the small packets.
Very nice to read this and perhaps try it out yourself. Look forward to the next articles. Perhaps it would be useful to include a list of the ingredients used and their quantities in the next section? Anyway, thanks for this nice thing.
Regards,
Wim
I read your article with interest, especially because I have made many pre-hard cheeses myself. I bought 20 liters of raw milk almost every week, which was delivered in 2 plastic bags of 10 liters each
I never looked for the address of the supplier, I called him when I needed milk. I got the telephone number from a neighbor of mine who had a mobile sales point called NOM SOD.
I also sometimes made soft cheeses and process cheese.
Unfortunately, I can no longer physically handle it, lifting and pouring 20 liters is too heavy for me
I still have the molds for cheeses weighing about 2 kilos and they are for sale.
Made the whey into alcohol to 90+%, which I then diluted to the desired percentage. I fermented the whey using baker's yeast and cane sugar then distilled it. I still have all the stuff but I don't do it anymore. If anyone is interested in taking over cheese molds, fermenter and distillation column, please let me know.
I must say that I did everything as a hobby and never sold a cheese or a bottle of alcohol.
I bought many of my supplies from: https://thaiartisanfoods.com/
I also got a lot of good tips from https://www.youtube.com/@GavinWebber and. I was and am also a member of https://zelfkaasmaken.forum2go.nl/ where you can find many nice recipes.
Dear Jeert,
if you can't carry 20l more, put it in a few smaller barrels. After all, that shouldn't be an excuse to spoil the fun.
Dear Will
those are 150gr jars. For sale everywhere.