Perfect!! I've been waiting for a video like this. Seems like unhomogenized, pasteurized milk with ~4% fat is the ideal. And no additives like gelatin, or milk that's had cream added to bring its fat content up, and homogenized is okay if you can't find unhomogenized. That's good, because where I live I can only get homogenized milk, but otherwise it sounds good. Thanks Gavin!
Many many thanks! I have started to do many things myself again, which I've hardly remembered how to do. So many helpful tips and ideas in your videos. You've made my family, myself and the organic farmer (5 min. to walk) happy, cause now I buy so much fresh raw milk. Greetings from Switzerland
Great video to clarify a few things for me. I live in New Zealand and use A2 raw, unhomogenised, unpasteurised milk that I can purchase from a vending machine on the farm. Most recipes mention unhomogenised, pasteurised and I had wondered if my raw milk needed pasteurisation. I'm confident with my supplier's processes so am happy to continue what I've been doing after watching your video. Thanks.
So that's why I ended up getting cream cheese from the UHT milk I used. My first time trying to make mozzarella cheese (or cheese of any kind) and I was so disappointed with the outcome. Thanks for the education.
Incredibly helpful video. Since I live in the US, I didn't know how our milk compared to milk in Australia. Our food police can be a little odd here at times, and don't always think we have a functional brain that we can use to think for ourselves. I've never seen any milk sold here above the fat content of whole milk (your alright pick for useable milk), but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I've never seen it. I'll have to look for it now, maybe my local farmers market will carry it. Thank you for all that information, it was a great help.
Glad I found this video. Thinking of making my own mozzarella while we are on lockdown here in Malaysia but difficult to get my hands on milk other than UHT 😅 at the moment.
Thank you so much. That was super helpful as I look to make my first cheese. I did look at the farmers own but I also considered the farm house gold. I also have raw milk to use so I’ve learnt a lot just from this video 😊
Don't know about every place in the US and California is likely wacker doodle but here in the southeast, whole milk has always and still is labeled as 4% fat min.
Thanks very much Gavin for your excellent instruction videos. I will give cheese making a try in the next couple of weeks, just because of your videos. I love trying out new crafts, and your enthusiasm for cheese is quite contagious. I'm also getting the impression that living near the alps (Austria) and close to a rural area will have it's benefits for cheese making. Standard whole milk in Austria is 3.5% fat (so it should work for most cheeses as far as I understood your videos), and just recently a farmer in my area opened up a 24/7 raw organic milk dispenser with self service (people in Austria like to have organic and fresh food, and that idea seem to sell quite well). I most certainly will give some of the easier beginner cheeses you mentioned in another video a try, and who knows, maybe install a cheese cave in the future. Many thanks for your nice videos.
Raw milk can have some nasty germs like tuberculosis. So here in germany it is only sold directly from farm and the farmer must advertise to pasteurize it. But buying always from the same organic farmer with a quite small herd of ~5 cows i do not care heat treating. Taste is better anyways. And if i need lower fat content, simply let it stand around 1 day, skim the cream and make butter. Then you do not want Industrial butter anymore too.
Thanks Gavin, this video is priceless. I can only get 3.25 "whole" here in Canada, and all of the "creams" I've seen at the grocery store so far have cellulose thickener in them. It really sucks that I can't get pure milk and pure cream! I need to find a farmer and make friends or get my own cow!!! :) I had left you a comment on your Raclette video asking why you think my cheese wasn't melting, well, after seeing this video and doing a lot of research on milk products here in Canada, I think I know it's due to lack of fat and also due to pasteurization and homogenization that kills both the protein structure and destroys the fat in the milk products.
Brilliant Gavin! I have been following you for some time and am going to start making cheese next year. Had I not seen this video I would have used the Farmhouse Gold so you have saved me from that!! I'll visit your website and stock up on supplies before I get started. Thanks for all your helpful advice.
I made a mozzarella once using skim milk. I did get a good break, but it created a cheese so hard that it broke the food processor when I tried to shred it. Never again. :D
I don't have the extra money for a cheese making kit...but I love educational videos of useful skills. I would love to see a chart of this information.
The right milk is all about the ratio of Fat to Protein around .80 is good (as your Choice is at .81) As a cheese marker I never see fat at less than 4.3 % and can get up too as high as 6% my advice for any one getting in to to this is to use the Pearson Square to work out your ratio for whole milk, cream, water. www.cheesescience.org/ is a great website to learn more about cheese making.
Thank you Gavin. Haven't made much cheese over winter and now that I am back into wanting to make some we discovered that we now can't get unhomogenised milk at our local Woolies or even our Coles, IGA, or Aldi stores :( Wayne and I have been looking at what we can now use and this video helps a lot.
Hi, Gavin. I'm a huge fan of your channel. About skimmed milk, all processed milk are first skimmed, and then homogenized with the fat (cream). As it is very difficult to find unhomogenized milk, and homogenized milk produces a cheese that tastes buttery, I'm now using skimmed milk and cream to make my cheeses, and with great results.
Hi, Gavin. It varies. I Have done some tests. First, i did a camembert using 3 Liters of skimmed milk and 500 mililiters of cream (35% fat). It was great. Then I did another batch using 4 liters os skimmed milk to a liter of cream (35%). Also very good, and very soft. Now i'm thinking about doing some queso fresco using 5 L of skimmed milk and 500 ml of cream (35%).
Ok Gavin are you now reading my mind ? Lately I have been thinking of giving cheese making a go and I have wondered what milk is best. Keep up the fantastic work. You are the king of the Curd nerds lol.
There’s a local milk producer in Beaudesert, Qld who built his own dairy and is stocked quite widely in southeast Qld. It’s non-homogenised, pasteurised milk and delicious. Great for cheese making. The brand is 4Real milk. They also make cream and cheese.
Since this video came out, the Farmers' Own brand has been discontinued. There has however been a proliferation of Jersey milk producers, and as Jersey milk is very high in milk solids, the light version has around 2g of fat per 100 ml while having similar milk other solid content as full cream milk.
For a camembert recipe - I wanted to know what yield (final product) would I expect from using 2 Gallons of milk if 1. Using store-bought pasteurized (not ultra or homogenized) full fat (3.25-3.4%) 2. Using Raw Milk that I pasteurize myself (slow, 145 Fahrenheit half-hour, then cooled) There is a big difference in price (where I live) and I wanted to know if it's worth it from a price standpoint. Whether it is worth it from a price point - How different is the final product taste (could make it worth it even if the yield difference doesn't cover the cost difference)? Thank you for these great videos.
Here in the US, it can be difficult to find real cream that is not Ultra Pasteurized. When I go to Sam's Club or Costco, all that they have is Ultra Pasteruized, so I have to go to smaller grocery stores to try and find thick whipping cream. Can you use cream that has been frozen and then thaw it to use in cheesemaking?
Thanks so much for this Gavin! The U.S. does not commonly label milk like you have shown they do in Austrailia. I was never really sure where to start when dealing with U.S. milk. Thanks so much for a fantastic tutorial.
I am grateful for this, it is educational as - is, but I would dearly like to see this done for North American markets. Even though you have different markets and brands, the customary measures and milkfats are recognizable, and since our "whole" is less fatty than oz's, and in the US we rarely double pasteurize, I'd love to know store bought types I could try for cheese making. Thanks in any case for all the shared wisdom!
I'm lucky where I live (Camano Island, WA, USA). We have a dairy farmer who sells raw Guernsey milk. Raw meaning no homogenization and no pasteurization. Plus, Guernsey cows have super high protein content and fat content.
@@acapyolo8487 It certainly does. Where are you located? I only know information in the Pacific NW of USA and the west coast. But if you don't have anything in your local store, I would look up a dairy and go ask them. Really small dairies will probably give you the best information. Also, raw milk is illegal some places in the USA, I know, but not sure in other countries.
@@marcuspi999 ouh tq bruh for the info, im located in malaysia. i just want to make a research about cheese for my assignment . Bruh why not we discuss to the next step more bout cheese if u dont mind :)
I can get two brands of unhomogenised milk locally with a fat content of 4.3 g/100ml. Another goes as high as 4.5. One of the 4.3g brands uses milk from a mixed herd of Jersey, Friesan and Illawarra cows.
I am just learning about cheese making, I was given a cheese making kit and am finding that for the most part is almost useless with low minimal amount of milk level, 900 milk so less yield. But what I wanted to know is I love Babybel cheese is it possible to make that at home, parmesan, feta and a few other types of cheese that is the extent of my knowledge, you know love melted cheese sandwiches etc., As I have said I am ignorant about cheese though I’ve always dreamt of making my own. I of course do not have a cheese cave and apart from what is in the kit have no equipment
All of the Woolworths in England close down about 15 years ago I loved going as a child you could get alsorts I still have a baby’s Toy that’s 19 years old and still look new even thou about 6 littlens have used it and a dog
Very informative and answered many of my questions thank you. Can you also do that with the cultures you use and the amount please again thank you. We are in prep learning how to make cheese . I would like to attempt to make swiss cheese as it is one of my fav. What is cc in measurements?
GoldenGuernsey cow whole milk.(USA) ..was so wonderful. Have not seen it in many years. In Africa my Dad made cheese (sort of a mozarella.) when we only had that lousy boxed milk and I cannot...he must have been adding something !
Nice presentation my friend. I used to work in a dairy factory in Greece, most of the cartons of milk have at the bottom numbers from 1-5 if a number is missing the number that is missing is how many times the milk has been processed, there is also a same pattern with five different colors. I always check the milk that I buy to be 1 or 2 times processed.
Thanks for the video. It's just sad that it's very difficult to get a hold of non-UHT milk in my country, but I will try to make my own cheese. I'll start with Ricotta/cottage cheese as it's the most simplest one and I need it for Lasagna. Time to say goodbye to Processed cheese. You won't be missed.
You can also make Paneer with UHT milk. Main thing whether it's Paneer or Ricotta is that you're relying on an external source of acid be it vinegar or lemon juice. Here in the U.S., UHT is the default mode of pasteurization AFAIK because it's cheap to do and is very energy efficient (when done in high volume, that is), and milk is generally not labeled whether it uses one type of pasteurization or another (though cream generally is). As a result, the best milks for cheese-making are the specialty brands (similar in spirit to that Farmhouse Gold) that cost so much that you don't ultimately save any money by making your own cheese unless you're making some very specific/unique variety that is extra expensive.
Really helpful video. I've been interested in making my own cheese but unsure the milk to use for it. The only milk I've seen in my area so far that might work is just basic homogenized milk. Their might be something else in the organic section I didn't see but I hope the homogenized milk will work.
Interesting that you say Farmer's Own is #1 for cheesemaking. I've never had a success with it - never had a curd set over at least 10 batches. I've suspected it is because it is standardised milk with cream added back. Perhaps Farmer's Own is processed differently in NSW? Anyway, I use Tilba Unhomogenised Jersey Milk - it is from an independent dairy, pasturised, but at the lowest legal/safe temperature of 62c (the closest I can get to legal raw milk), which makes it ideal for curds and cultures as the proteins have not been killed off and it still has all the calcium, and it's 4.5% fat. You're right about Gippsland Dairy Double Cream being very difficult to blend back into the milk - I have been using it to make icecream and it takes forever to get it well blended for the custard. I'll try out that Bulla Pure for the next batch. Love your work, keep it up please :D
krankywitch That's really interesting, I've never had an issue with Farmers Own. The last batch of cheese I made had an amazing amount of curd. I do use the Victorian milk so I wonder if you're right about it being produced differently?
Perhaps it's processed differently? I'm sure with the volumes they produce, FO must have more than one facility. I persisted for a while as I'm aware that there are seasonal differences in milk. Autumn and Winter milk is never as good as late Spring and Summer milk because the pasture changes - Summer grasses are much richer and more nutritious, which is why many dairies have to supplement feed through the colder months. I really notice that when frothing milk for my coffee - I get a much better 'head' in summer. This morning I've whipped up a batch of Quick Mozzarella for pizza tonight - I used Tilba milk and it has come out great, but not as fantastic as is does through summer. I put it down to being winter, plus the NSW South Coast has been drier than usual this season, therefore the feed is different and the milk will be different. For any curd nerds within range of the Tilba supply, it is a real cheese makers milk as the dairy produces it with cheese making in mind. They make a great range of cheeses and run classes at their dairy.
lol my ex used to work for Bulla in their NSW outlet ..my fridge used to be so full of cream that to get rid of it we either froze it or made butter from it , mostly it was the first bulla cream u picked up the one with the red label
It's worth mentioning that different breeds of cow give different fat contents of milk. Most milk is from Holsteins which has a pretty low fat content. But brown Swiss has a fat content of 4.6% on average (which is where that second to last milk may have come from). They are the second most popular breed of dairy cow here in the US as well! So if you know what cow your milk is coming from....
The cattle I plan to milk can give a 4.5% butterfat content. I read they get it from the Angus side of the cross. The Angus/Holstein calves I bought are not kept by the dairy farmers.
Very helpful video as always Gavin, I always wondered which milks to use. Just put in a couple Camembert into my cheese fridge today, they looked very official. A nice change after my Gouda failed. Quick question, what would cause a slight bitterness in a semi-hard cheese? Would it be over-acidification or something else? Cheers
Very informative, but it leaves me wondering a bit with some thing here in the US. Some is rather obvious, like skim milk being a non-starter, and in place of your "Lite Milk" we have 1% milk, which would clearly not work well because of the low fat content. However, in between our 1% milk and what we call "Whole Milk" over here (presumably equal to what you are calling "Full Cream Milk"), we have 2% milk. And it's a little deceptive when looking at your videos. The lid and label colors have pretty much become standardized across brands here so the light blue (similar to your lite milk) is 1%, but the darker blue (same blue as your full cream milk) is 2%, and red is whole milk. Because of the standardized colors for the different milk types here, I was actually thinking you usually used 2% milk until watching this video because it's the same color as our 2% here. Then there are heavy cream and whipping cream (or "Heavy Whipping Cream"), which I'm not sure whether they truly fall into the cream category with your "Pure Cream" or if they are somewhere between milk and cream (I know they are actually liquid, and tend to be only slightly thicker than milk). So, because you don't have (or at least didn't mention) equivalents to some of these, I have to wonder about their utility in cheese making. With the milks, as I'm sure you can guess, 1% milk contains 1% milk fat, 2% milk contains 2% milk fat, whole milk contains the whole amount of fat naturally found in the milk. Nice and simple. Obviously whole milk would be better since none of the fat is removed, but it should (in theory) have twice the yield of 1% milk, so would it be viable to use in cheese making? I ask because 2% is the milk we generally buy in my household. Additionally, the whipping cream is generally sold in pint or quart cartons rather than small tubs like the varieties you're showing, which leads me to believe they are something different than what you're referring to. This makes me wonder whether the heavy cream, whipping cream, or heavy whipping cream would be a suitable additive for the cheeses you spoke of that require additional fat, or if they would actually be suitable to use as a base instead of milk. Like I said, your video is very informative, but it leaves me wondering about items that are readily available to me but which have no apparent parallel in what you've discussed. I hope yo might be willing to address those at some point. EDIT: Clearly the milk in Australia is packaged by intelligent people who use a reasonable baseline of 100 mL to convey the amount of nutrients it contains. Here in the US food products are packaged by idiots who have decided to use arbitrary and variable "serving" amounts and give the values per serving, not by conveying what percentage of the product each item comprises, but rather by what percentage of the recommended daily consumption of that item the amount in one serving of the product contains. Confusing, I know. For example, on a one quart carton of heavy whipping cream, it says that a "serving" is one tablespoon or 15mL, and that the fat content per serving is five grams or 6% of the daily recommended value (it also lists ingredients as "heavy cream, skim milk, contains less than 1% of: mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, carrageenan"). For comparison, a gallon of whole milk shows a serving size of one cup or 236 mL and says the amount of fat per serving is 8 grams or 10% of the daily recommended value. These arbitrary and inconsistent serving sizes, along with the fact that values are given as percentage of recommended intake rather than percentage of the whole product, makes it extremely difficult to determine how one product compares to another of a different name. I'm convinced that it is intentionally designed to be convoluted and hard to understand, but hopefully the explanation and examples given will help you figure out what is what and which items would be suitable for use in cheese making. At least the naming of the milk varieties make things clear for them!
Great vid thanks mate! I'm in Canada so all these kinds are different. If I get you, the crucial thing is no or low heat pasteurization? and then fat content? Cheers!
@@GavinWebber went to the store in the meantime and they all say pasteurized, no indication of high or low temp. I may try to find a small producer. Will be getting some rennet when I get to the city. Thanks for all the info!
This has probably been answered but In the USA many of our standard (not ultra) pasteurized "whole milk" has vitamin D added. Is that a problem for cheese making?
I think you'll find the labelling laws require the description as per Farmhouse Gold. It reminds me of the milk I used to get at school many moons ago. I'd hazard a guess that it is Jersey milk.
I don't believe they use Gelatin to thicken cream here in the USA. I haven't seen it. I was interesting in adding cream to milk so Thanks for that Mate.
I grew up on raw milk. It is one of the perks to being a farm kid. That being said you will never get raw milk in a store. No, it is not some government mind control thing. It is basic math however. When I was a kid the milk came from the cow, stained through a cloth, and into the fridge. The path of store milk..... At any point from the time it leaves the cow to the time it hits your lips it can be concatenated. The longer it takes the bigger the risk, it is that simple. As Gavin said if you want raw milk find a farmer you can trust and go from there it may take a bit of leg work, but the option is there. lol I think it would be funny watching someone hand milk a cow that has never done it before.
Ya, I just threw that in there to stir up the conspiracy types. Some peeps thing strange thoughts that go well beyond skeptical. Back before pasteurization it was not rare for people to get sick from contaminated milk. It is very bad for business to make your customers sick and they stop being your customer when you do.
NIDO, the most globally available dry whole milk is the only milk readily available in some Island nations and remote communities. I take it camping. It tastes like rich whole milk. I wonder how it would perform with cheese?
Thanks for those tips Gavin, I'm just starting to make my own mozzarella, where can I get calcium chloride from and why do I need it?. Cheers mate from Adelaide :). By the way. I love your vids so keep up the good work.
Hey Gav, thanks for the video! Just a heads up though that Coles and Woolies full cream milk can sometimes struggle to set a curd even with calcium chloride. After speaking with some others in the cheese community on the north east coast we found that the big 2 supermarkets sometimes mix left-over UHT milk with the regular full cream milk. Depending on your woolies or Coles Norco, and Dairy Farmers are the best budget choices at around $1.50/L
Thanks gavin for this very useful video, I have learned too much from you tutorial, but I still have a question, about making cheese from powdered milk.
hello from argentina mr! in first im pleased to say that im amazed about your vast knowledge about cheese, im just starting to craft and you have been a brigth light. now that being said, i would like to know if adding cream to a UHT homegeneized milk would turn it into a decent milk to make cheese. thanks in advance and keep up these superb videos you upload! (:
You may have already found this out by now, but I'm pretty sure that would not work. Once a milk has been ultra-pasteurized, it can't be recovered for cheese-making. The denatured proteins aren't going to go back to their original state.
Hi Gavin, So if making Parmesan, you say 14 litres of 2% milk, can you use 10 litres of lower fat and add 4 litres of high fat? to roughly equate to the 2%, what would be the +/- tolerances. Best Wishes from Scotland.
PS loved the colored water comment - had me in stiches
“I hate two things: liars and skim milk, which is just water lying about being milk.”
Perfect!! I've been waiting for a video like this. Seems like unhomogenized, pasteurized milk with ~4% fat is the ideal. And no additives like gelatin, or milk that's had cream added to bring its fat content up, and homogenized is okay if you can't find unhomogenized. That's good, because where I live I can only get homogenized milk, but otherwise it sounds good. Thanks Gavin!
Many many thanks!
I have started to do many things myself again, which I've hardly remembered how to do.
So many helpful tips and ideas in your videos.
You've made my family, myself and the organic farmer (5 min. to walk) happy, cause now I buy so much fresh raw milk.
Greetings from Switzerland
Just saw this and wanted to say thanks! Living in America I was a bit confused by your milk terms until now hahahhaha.....
Great video to clarify a few things for me. I live in New Zealand and use A2 raw, unhomogenised, unpasteurised milk that I can purchase from a vending machine on the farm. Most recipes mention unhomogenised, pasteurised and I had wondered if my raw milk needed pasteurisation. I'm confident with my supplier's processes so am happy to continue what I've been doing after watching your video. Thanks.
This man could tell me litteraly anything to me about cheese making and have me interested
So bloody useful haveing an Aussie explain this thanks mate 👍
No problem 👍
Well I’m looking forward to my first attempt at cheese making! Here in Idaho raw milk is legal and I can pick it up close by fresh! Very cool
So that's why I ended up getting cream cheese from the UHT milk I used. My first time trying to make mozzarella cheese (or cheese of any kind) and I was so disappointed with the outcome. Thanks for the education.
Incredibly helpful video. Since I live in the US, I didn't know how our milk compared to milk in Australia. Our food police can be a little odd here at times, and don't always think we have a functional brain that we can use to think for ourselves. I've never seen any milk sold here above the fat content of whole milk (your alright pick for useable milk), but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I've never seen it. I'll have to look for it now, maybe my local farmers market will carry it. Thank you for all that information, it was a great help.
Glad I found this video. Thinking of making my own mozzarella while we are on lockdown here in Malaysia but difficult to get my hands on milk other than UHT 😅 at the moment.
If you can buy milk you can buy cheese. Why complicate things?
@@supercooled simple reason: I want to learn how to do it myself.
Avec Gracey I. Add butter once because I was also curious. The yield wasnot that great.
hi from malaysia also 😃👋 glad to see u in comment
Thank you for explaining the variety of milk. For me, especially 5th one, Gold, was an eye-opener.
Thank you so much. That was super helpful as I look to make my first cheese. I did look at the farmers own but I also considered the farm house gold. I also have raw milk to use so I’ve learnt a lot just from this video 😊
You are the authority of cheese...THE HEAD CHEESE. Your channel is a YT gem...love you bro and keep it up!!
Mark Linden head cheese? 😅 🤢
Don't know about every place in the US and California is likely wacker doodle but here in the southeast, whole milk has always and still is labeled as 4% fat min.
Any chance we could get a tour of the cheese cave? I'd love to see all the cheeses snug in their boxes.
One thumbs down are you serious! Disagree with what he's teaching or what? Everything he said was spot on!
Excellent video sir!
+Shawn Scaggs thank you. I often wonder why people leave a thumbs down. It make no sense to me.
Gavin Webber sometimes I thumbs down videos so they stop showing up in my recommended..like those animal cruelty videos with disturbing thumbnails
Thanks very much Gavin for your excellent instruction videos. I will give cheese making a try in the next couple of weeks, just because of your videos. I love trying out new crafts, and your enthusiasm for cheese is quite contagious. I'm also getting the impression that living near the alps (Austria) and close to a rural area will have it's benefits for cheese making. Standard whole milk in Austria is 3.5% fat (so it should work for most cheeses as far as I understood your videos), and just recently a farmer in my area opened up a 24/7 raw organic milk dispenser with self service (people in Austria like to have organic and fresh food, and that idea seem to sell quite well).
I most certainly will give some of the easier beginner cheeses you mentioned in another video a try, and who knows, maybe install a cheese cave in the future.
Many thanks for your nice videos.
It sounds like you will have the best quality milk for your new hobby!
Well I am thinking about having a go at cheese making. Great to find an Aussie :-) I will look at your other clips. Thank you
Finally a useful video about milk and cheese! Much thanks good sir
Hi There Gavin, I live on the tablelands in Far North Qld, Mugali Creek Milk is also perfect for cheese making.
Very informative and interesting. Also my partner and I had a laugh at your description of skim milk.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm starting my cheese making "career" here 😂. First order of the day is to know my milks!
Next is the culture and rennet and their roles!
You are brilliant! Thank you for this tutorial, always a treat to watch your videos. Much love from the Philippines x
Thanks, Frances!
Raw milk can have some nasty germs like tuberculosis. So here in germany it is only sold directly from farm and the farmer must advertise to pasteurize it. But buying always from the same organic farmer with a quite small herd of ~5 cows i do not care heat treating. Taste is better anyways. And if i need lower fat content, simply let it stand around 1 day, skim the cream and make butter. Then you do not want Industrial butter anymore too.
Thanks Gavin, this video is priceless. I can only get 3.25 "whole" here in Canada, and all of the "creams" I've seen at the grocery store so far have cellulose thickener in them. It really sucks that I can't get pure milk and pure cream! I need to find a farmer and make friends or get my own cow!!! :) I had left you a comment on your Raclette video asking why you think my cheese wasn't melting, well, after seeing this video and doing a lot of research on milk products here in Canada, I think I know it's due to lack of fat and also due to pasteurization and homogenization that kills both the protein structure and destroys the fat in the milk products.
Thank you! I’ve had this question on my mind for a year now.
Very informative video Cheeseman. Definitely one of the first videos an aspiring home cheesemaker should watch. Greetings from sunny Puerto Rico.
Brilliant Gavin! I have been following you for some time and am going to start making cheese next year. Had I not seen this video I would have used the Farmhouse Gold so you have saved me from that!! I'll visit your website and stock up on supplies before I get started. Thanks for all your helpful advice.
Thanks, Graeme. Glad to be of help.
I made a mozzarella once using skim milk. I did get a good break, but it created a cheese so hard that it broke the food processor when I tried to shred it. Never again. :D
Great video. Love your channel. I have used your mozzarella recipe and instructions many times. This video adds to my knowledge perfectly!
Thanks Luke!
I don't have the extra money for a cheese making kit...but I love educational videos of useful skills. I would love to see a chart of this information.
Coloured water 😂😂😂😂 That was Gold!
This was very educational, especially learning about the problems with using UHT milk products.
Great explanation, thanks!
The right milk is all about the ratio of Fat to Protein around .80 is good (as your Choice is at .81) As a cheese marker I never see fat at less than 4.3 % and can get up too as high as 6% my advice for any one getting in to to this is to use the Pearson Square to work out your ratio for whole milk, cream, water. www.cheesescience.org/ is a great website to learn more about cheese making.
Thank you Gavin. Haven't made much cheese over winter and now that I am back into wanting to make some we discovered that we now can't get unhomogenised milk at our local Woolies or even our Coles, IGA, or Aldi stores :(
Wayne and I have been looking at what we can now use and this video helps a lot.
Another great tutorial! Thanks Gavin.
Hi, Gavin. I'm a huge fan of your channel. About skimmed milk, all processed milk are first skimmed, and then homogenized with the fat (cream). As it is very difficult to find unhomogenized milk, and homogenized milk produces a cheese that tastes buttery, I'm now using skimmed milk and cream to make my cheeses, and with great results.
Great tip Rogerio. How many mls of cream are you adding per litre of skimmed milk? I would like to try it.
Hi, Gavin. It varies. I Have done some tests. First, i did a camembert using 3 Liters of skimmed milk and 500 mililiters of cream (35% fat). It was great. Then I did another batch using 4 liters os skimmed milk to a liter of cream (35%). Also very good, and very soft. Now i'm thinking about doing some queso fresco using 5 L of skimmed milk and 500 ml of cream (35%).
Ok Gavin are you now reading my mind ? Lately I have been thinking of giving cheese making a go and I have wondered what milk is best. Keep up the fantastic work. You are the king of the Curd nerds lol.
Great video. Very informative so that I could relate it to our dairy levels here in Canada.
There’s a local milk producer in Beaudesert, Qld who built his own dairy and is stocked quite widely in southeast Qld. It’s non-homogenised, pasteurised milk and delicious. Great for cheese making. The brand is 4Real milk. They also make cream and cheese.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing. I am doing research for making here in the U.S.
Tilba Jersey Cow milk. you can get it from IGA. Absolutely God tier milk.
Norma full cream milk has significantly higher fat content than typical dairy farmers milk. I simply assume,the more fat, the tastier the cheese.
Since this video came out, the Farmers' Own brand has been discontinued. There has however been a proliferation of Jersey milk producers, and as Jersey milk is very high in milk solids, the light version has around 2g of fat per 100 ml while having similar milk other solid content as full cream milk.
Thank you gavin for sharing your and teach us to make cheese thank you. God bless your heart gavin.
For a camembert recipe - I wanted to know what yield (final product) would I expect from using 2 Gallons of milk if
1. Using store-bought pasteurized (not ultra or homogenized) full fat (3.25-3.4%)
2. Using Raw Milk that I pasteurize myself (slow, 145 Fahrenheit half-hour, then cooled)
There is a big difference in price (where I live) and I wanted to know if it's worth it from a price standpoint.
Whether it is worth it from a price point - How different is the final product taste (could make it worth it even if the yield difference doesn't cover the cost difference)?
Thank you for these great videos.
Luckily I stumbled onto farmers own at woolies! Good video to see! I'll use that cream for my next Brie
Here in the US, it can be difficult to find real cream that is not Ultra Pasteurized. When I go to Sam's Club or Costco, all that they have is Ultra Pasteruized, so I have to go to smaller grocery stores to try and find thick whipping cream. Can you use cream that has been frozen and then thaw it to use in cheesemaking?
Not sure, never tried that.
Absolutely not. Cream falls apart and separates if you freeze it. It’s not terrible if you’re cooking it anyway but not useful as raw cream.
Thanks so much for this Gavin! The U.S. does not commonly label milk like you have shown they do in Austrailia. I was never really sure where to start when dealing with U.S. milk. Thanks so much for a fantastic tutorial.
I am grateful for this, it is educational as - is, but I would dearly like to see this done for North American markets. Even though you have different markets and brands, the customary measures and milkfats are recognizable, and since our "whole" is less fatty than oz's, and in the US we rarely double pasteurize, I'd love to know store bought types I could try for cheese making. Thanks in any case for all the shared wisdom!
I'm lucky where I live (Camano Island, WA, USA). We have a dairy farmer who sells raw Guernsey milk. Raw meaning no homogenization and no pasteurization. Plus, Guernsey cows have super high protein content and fat content.
does raw milk can use to make cheese?
@@acapyolo8487 Of course. Raw milk makes the best cheese. Cheese predates pasteurization and homogenization by nearly 8000 years.
@@marcuspi999 ouh tq for the info, by the way hw to get raw milk in good quality ? does the cow play a role?
@@acapyolo8487 It certainly does. Where are you located? I only know information in the Pacific NW of USA and the west coast. But if you don't have anything in your local store, I would look up a dairy and go ask them. Really small dairies will probably give you the best information. Also, raw milk is illegal some places in the USA, I know, but not sure in other countries.
@@marcuspi999 ouh tq bruh for the info, im located in malaysia. i just want to make a research about cheese for my assignment . Bruh why not we discuss to the next step more bout cheese if u dont mind :)
Very interesting and helpful for a beginner, many thanks ,Bob
whew... I was about to buy any milk from the grocer. Luckily you provided that milk info. Thanks
Thanks for the info from Texas
Thanks Gavin, interesting, curious about storing raw milk now. New stuff to investigate. Ta.
I live around Amish and we can get raw milk, pretty readily. Great for cheese. Like drinking paint tho 😂😂
I can get two brands of unhomogenised milk locally with a fat content of 4.3 g/100ml. Another goes as high as 4.5. One of the 4.3g brands uses milk from a mixed herd of Jersey, Friesan and Illawarra cows.
2:45 Swanson would be proud of you
Excellent tutorial! Thank you!
I am just learning about cheese making, I was given a cheese making kit and am finding that for the most part is almost useless with low minimal amount of milk level, 900 milk so less yield. But what I wanted to know is I love Babybel cheese is it possible to make that at home, parmesan, feta and a few other types of cheese that is the extent of my knowledge, you know love melted cheese sandwiches etc., As I have said I am ignorant about cheese though I’ve always dreamt of making my own. I of course do not have a cheese cave and apart from what is in the kit have no equipment
All of the Woolworths in England close down about 15 years ago I loved going as a child you could get alsorts I still have a baby’s Toy that’s 19 years old and still look new even thou about 6 littlens have used it and a dog
Very informative and answered many of my questions thank you. Can you also do that with the cultures you use and the amount please again thank you. We are in prep learning how to make cheese . I would like to attempt to make swiss cheese as it is one of my fav. What is cc in measurements?
Love watching you make cheese.
GoldenGuernsey cow whole milk.(USA) ..was so wonderful. Have not seen it in many years. In Africa my Dad made cheese (sort of a mozarella.) when we only had that lousy boxed milk and I cannot...he must have been adding something !
Nice presentation my friend. I used to work in a dairy factory in Greece, most of the cartons of milk have at the bottom numbers from 1-5 if a number is missing the number that is missing is how many times the milk has been processed, there is also a same pattern with five different colors. I always check the milk that I buy to be 1 or 2 times processed.
Thanks for the video. It's just sad that it's very difficult to get a hold of non-UHT milk in my country, but I will try to make my own cheese. I'll start with Ricotta/cottage cheese as it's the most simplest one and I need it for Lasagna.
Time to say goodbye to Processed cheese. You won't be missed.
You can also make Paneer with UHT milk. Main thing whether it's Paneer or Ricotta is that you're relying on an external source of acid be it vinegar or lemon juice. Here in the U.S., UHT is the default mode of pasteurization AFAIK because it's cheap to do and is very energy efficient (when done in high volume, that is), and milk is generally not labeled whether it uses one type of pasteurization or another (though cream generally is). As a result, the best milks for cheese-making are the specialty brands (similar in spirit to that Farmhouse Gold) that cost so much that you don't ultimately save any money by making your own cheese unless you're making some very specific/unique variety that is extra expensive.
Really helpful video. I've been interested in making my own cheese but unsure the milk to use for it. The only milk I've seen in my area so far that might work is just basic homogenized milk. Their might be something else in the organic section I didn't see but I hope the homogenized milk will work.
Interesting that you say Farmer's Own is #1 for cheesemaking. I've never had a success with it - never had a curd set over at least 10 batches. I've suspected it is because it is standardised milk with cream added back. Perhaps Farmer's Own is processed differently in NSW? Anyway, I use Tilba Unhomogenised Jersey Milk - it is from an independent dairy, pasturised, but at the lowest legal/safe temperature of 62c (the closest I can get to legal raw milk), which makes it ideal for curds and cultures as the proteins have not been killed off and it still has all the calcium, and it's 4.5% fat. You're right about Gippsland Dairy Double Cream being very difficult to blend back into the milk - I have been using it to make icecream and it takes forever to get it well blended for the custard. I'll try out that Bulla Pure for the next batch. Love your work, keep it up please :D
krankywitch That's really interesting, I've never had an issue with Farmers Own. The last batch of cheese I made had an amazing amount of curd. I do use the Victorian milk so I wonder if you're right about it being produced differently?
Perhaps it's processed differently? I'm sure with the volumes they produce, FO must have more than one facility. I persisted for a while as I'm aware that there are seasonal differences in milk. Autumn and Winter milk is never as good as late Spring and Summer milk because the pasture changes - Summer grasses are much richer and more nutritious, which is why many dairies have to supplement feed through the colder months. I really notice that when frothing milk for my coffee - I get a much better 'head' in summer. This morning I've whipped up a batch of Quick Mozzarella for pizza tonight - I used Tilba milk and it has come out great, but not as fantastic as is does through summer. I put it down to being winter, plus the NSW South Coast has been drier than usual this season, therefore the feed is different and the milk will be different. For any curd nerds within range of the Tilba supply, it is a real cheese makers milk as the dairy produces it with cheese making in mind. They make a great range of cheeses and run classes at their dairy.
lol my ex used to work for Bulla in their NSW outlet ..my fridge used to be so full of cream that to get rid of it we either froze it or made butter from it , mostly it was the first bulla cream u picked up the one with the red label
Cheers Gavin very informative and my choice of milk for my coffee, looking at making mozzarella so I'll be checking out your vids.
Nice guide. It answered my questions.
Thank you Gavin, i like the video it's the most informative video i ever watch
Thanks for the heads up INFO...
It's worth mentioning that different breeds of cow give different fat contents of milk. Most milk is from Holsteins which has a pretty low fat content. But brown Swiss has a fat content of 4.6% on average (which is where that second to last milk may have come from). They are the second most popular breed of dairy cow here in the US as well! So if you know what cow your milk is coming from....
The cattle I plan to milk can give a 4.5% butterfat content. I read they get it from the Angus side of the cross. The Angus/Holstein calves I bought are not kept by the dairy farmers.
Very helpful video as always Gavin, I always wondered which milks to use. Just put in a couple Camembert into my cheese fridge today, they looked very official. A nice change after my Gouda failed. Quick question, what would cause a slight bitterness in a semi-hard cheese? Would it be over-acidification or something else? Cheers
Usually, bitterness is caused by either too much whey in the curds, or using too much rennet to set the curd.
Lovely explanation, that means UHT kills goods bacteria and culture that reacts with citric to make curds please correct me?
Very informative, but it leaves me wondering a bit with some thing here in the US. Some is rather obvious, like skim milk being a non-starter, and in place of your "Lite Milk" we have 1% milk, which would clearly not work well because of the low fat content. However, in between our 1% milk and what we call "Whole Milk" over here (presumably equal to what you are calling "Full Cream Milk"), we have 2% milk. And it's a little deceptive when looking at your videos. The lid and label colors have pretty much become standardized across brands here so the light blue (similar to your lite milk) is 1%, but the darker blue (same blue as your full cream milk) is 2%, and red is whole milk. Because of the standardized colors for the different milk types here, I was actually thinking you usually used 2% milk until watching this video because it's the same color as our 2% here. Then there are heavy cream and whipping cream (or "Heavy Whipping Cream"), which I'm not sure whether they truly fall into the cream category with your "Pure Cream" or if they are somewhere between milk and cream (I know they are actually liquid, and tend to be only slightly thicker than milk). So, because you don't have (or at least didn't mention) equivalents to some of these, I have to wonder about their utility in cheese making. With the milks, as I'm sure you can guess, 1% milk contains 1% milk fat, 2% milk contains 2% milk fat, whole milk contains the whole amount of fat naturally found in the milk. Nice and simple. Obviously whole milk would be better since none of the fat is removed, but it should (in theory) have twice the yield of 1% milk, so would it be viable to use in cheese making? I ask because 2% is the milk we generally buy in my household. Additionally, the whipping cream is generally sold in pint or quart cartons rather than small tubs like the varieties you're showing, which leads me to believe they are something different than what you're referring to. This makes me wonder whether the heavy cream, whipping cream, or heavy whipping cream would be a suitable additive for the cheeses you spoke of that require additional fat, or if they would actually be suitable to use as a base instead of milk. Like I said, your video is very informative, but it leaves me wondering about items that are readily available to me but which have no apparent parallel in what you've discussed. I hope yo might be willing to address those at some point.
EDIT: Clearly the milk in Australia is packaged by intelligent people who use a reasonable baseline of 100 mL to convey the amount of nutrients it contains. Here in the US food products are packaged by idiots who have decided to use arbitrary and variable "serving" amounts and give the values per serving, not by conveying what percentage of the product each item comprises, but rather by what percentage of the recommended daily consumption of that item the amount in one serving of the product contains. Confusing, I know. For example, on a one quart carton of heavy whipping cream, it says that a "serving" is one tablespoon or 15mL, and that the fat content per serving is five grams or 6% of the daily recommended value (it also lists ingredients as "heavy cream, skim milk, contains less than 1% of: mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, carrageenan"). For comparison, a gallon of whole milk shows a serving size of one cup or 236 mL and says the amount of fat per serving is 8 grams or 10% of the daily recommended value. These arbitrary and inconsistent serving sizes, along with the fact that values are given as percentage of recommended intake rather than percentage of the whole product, makes it extremely difficult to determine how one product compares to another of a different name. I'm convinced that it is intentionally designed to be convoluted and hard to understand, but hopefully the explanation and examples given will help you figure out what is what and which items would be suitable for use in cheese making. At least the naming of the milk varieties make things clear for them!
Jersey milk can often be up to 6% or above naturally without human intervention.
And it is delicious as well
Great vid thanks mate! I'm in Canada so all these kinds are different. If I get you, the crucial thing is no or low heat pasteurization? and then fat content? Cheers!
Yes, correct
@@GavinWebber went to the store in the meantime and they all say pasteurized, no indication of high or low temp. I may try to find a small producer. Will be getting some rennet when I get to the city. Thanks for all the info!
This has probably been answered but In the USA many of our standard (not ultra) pasteurized "whole milk" has vitamin D added. Is that a problem for cheese making?
This should be the video with most views.
I think you'll find the labelling laws require the description as per Farmhouse Gold. It reminds me of the milk I used to get at school many moons ago. I'd hazard a guess that it is Jersey milk.
I don't believe they use Gelatin to thicken cream here in the USA. I haven't seen it.
I was interesting in adding cream to milk so Thanks for that Mate.
they sometimes use starch from plants, like corn starch, cheaper than gelatin
Super informative!
Thanks!
I grew up on raw milk. It is one of the perks to being a farm kid. That being said you will never get raw milk in a store. No, it is not some government mind control thing. It is basic math however. When I was a kid the milk came from the cow, stained through a cloth, and into the fridge. The path of store milk..... At any point from the time it leaves the cow to the time it hits your lips it can be concatenated. The longer it takes the bigger the risk, it is that simple. As Gavin said if you want raw milk find a farmer you can trust and go from there it may take a bit of leg work, but the option is there. lol I think it would be funny watching someone hand milk a cow that has never done it before.
Ya, I just threw that in there to stir up the conspiracy types. Some peeps thing strange thoughts that go well beyond skeptical. Back before pasteurization it was not rare for people to get sick from contaminated milk. It is very bad for business to make your customers sick and they stop being your customer when you do.
Drivel
So much great information! ❤️ Jen
Hi Gavin. I enjoy your videos. Have you made Délice de Bourgogne? I would love to see a video on this...one of my favorites. Thanks.
NIDO, the most globally available dry whole milk is the only milk readily available in some Island nations and remote communities. I take it camping. It tastes like rich whole milk.
I wonder how it would perform with cheese?
I wonder how it would taste for making ice cream
Thanks for those tips Gavin, I'm just starting to make my own mozzarella, where can I get calcium chloride from and why do I need it?. Cheers mate from Adelaide :). By the way. I love your vids so keep up the good work.
great content. thanks.
Hey Gav, thanks for the video! Just a heads up though that Coles and Woolies full cream milk can sometimes struggle to set a curd even with calcium chloride. After speaking with some others in the cheese community on the north east coast we found that the big 2 supermarkets sometimes mix left-over UHT milk with the regular full cream milk.
Depending on your woolies or Coles Norco, and Dairy Farmers are the best budget choices at around $1.50/L
Thanks for the recommendations. I wasn't aware that they were sneaky like that.
Thanks gavin for this very useful video, I have learned too much from you tutorial, but I still have a question, about making cheese from powdered milk.
USA has the finest careeganen sauces. We call it Cream.
Thanks Gavin!
Would using skim or partly skim plus heavy whipping cream to get the correct fat content be better than homogenized milk?
Yes
hello from argentina mr! in first im pleased to say that im amazed about your vast knowledge about cheese, im just starting to craft and you have been a brigth light. now that being said, i would like to know if adding cream to a UHT homegeneized milk would turn it into a decent milk to make cheese. thanks in advance and keep up these superb videos you upload! (:
You may have already found this out by now, but I'm pretty sure that would not work. Once a milk has been ultra-pasteurized, it can't be recovered for cheese-making. The denatured proteins aren't going to go back to their original state.
Hi Gavin, So if making Parmesan, you say 14 litres of 2% milk, can you use 10 litres of lower fat and add 4 litres of high fat? to roughly equate to the 2%, what would be the +/- tolerances.
Best Wishes from Scotland.