Upcoming Home Cheesemakers Forum - Auckland
12 Jan 2012
Home Cheesemakers Forum -
An opportunity for home cheesemakers to gather together, swap notes and share cheesemaking adventures
With so much to talk about, the afternoon promises interest, fun and sharing a pool of expertise
Held on the eve of the Cuisine NZ Annual Cheese Awards judging this is NZ’s big week for cheese with the Monteiths CheeseFest held at the Langham Hotel the following week.
Places are limited. Ticket price includes entry, a selection of Kapiti cheese and Wild Wheat Bakery breads and special in store discounts on Kapiti cheese. Wine and beer available for purchase
Curds & Whey will be there with a selection of cheese equipment
-
Where: The Kapiti Store, 19 Shortland Street, Auckland
- When: Saturday 25 February 2012
- Time: 3.00pm - 5.00pm
- Ticket Price: $10.00
- Restrictions: All ages, licensed
- Contact Information: 09 358 3835 (booking fees may apply)
Come along and enjoy yourself - look forward to seeing you
Interested in making a submission on the sale of raw milk?
01 Dec 2011
 As a cheesemaker you must be aware of how important it is to have access to premium milk. Submissions to MAF are being made at the present time with regard to access of raw milk Interesting article NZ Herald today 1 December on raw milk.
Please see document below:
Dear Raw Milk
Lover....
Raw milk is under
consideration by MAF at present as a new food bill is being proposed, and they
have asked the public for submissions.
They don’t intend to
remove raw milk completely, but there are some restrictions they suggest, that
we are able to make comment on.
If you have any
interest in health and healthy food in New Zealand, now is the time to have
your voice heard by sending a short and ‘as simple as you like’ letter to MAF.
The more voices that
are heard and counted, the more seriously they will have to consider the impact
of any decision they make.
PLEASE TAKE 15 MINUTES TO WRITE SOMETHING NOW.
IT NEEDS TO BE SUBMITTED TO MAF BY 5TH
DECEMBER 2011,
It needs to be in your own words.
If you are not sure what to say and have limited time ,you could send
an email indicating that you think it important for all New Zealanders to be
able to choose what they want to eat and drink and where they source it from. The more submissions posted to them the greater the impact.
If you have any testimonials to raw
milk’s health improving benefits, then please tell them your story.
Have a look at the website set up
especially for this event. You will get ideas for for submissions from it: http://www.milk.org.nz/
You must start off with the next three
lines.
Submission to MAF:
“Proposals for continuing to legally
provide for farm gate sales of raw drinking milk”
MAF Public Discussion Paper No: 2011/11
Email your submission to MAFfoodpolicy@maf.govt.nz
or Post (your submission will have more
impact)
Food Policy Team
Biosecurity & Food Directorate
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6104
New Zealand
If you are interested in making a submission on Raw Milk this requires to be done by 5 December 2011 and a relevant website to access would be http://www.milk.org.nz
Be Savvy with Sacco - Technical Help
01 Nov 2011
We want to help you with your Cheesemaking. At regular internals we will attach articles relevant to the art of cheesemaking that we hope will make the process clearer to you.
Today's issue is simple - understanding the variability of rennet - but helpful to the cheesemaking process -
Check out:
Rennet Use and Curd Setting Time
Culture change at Curds & Whey
07 Sep 2011
At Curds & Whey the most important focus for us - is you - the cheesemaker
We listen to your feedback which is important
As a result we are delighted to introduce to you
Clerici Sacco cultures and enzymes
Clerici Sacco is an Italian owned award winning business that produces quality products for cheese, yoghurt and buttermaking. Conscious of customer demand Sacco - as they are known - tailor products to suit customer needs from the home cheesemaker to the large commercial enterprise - and always the emphasis is on quality
We are now stocking some core cultures at a special introductory price - so come and try them out. We know you will be thrilled with the taste, the quality and the convenience of Sacco and the more you support us the better we can increase variety for you
Click here to view Sacco Culture Information
Facts that influence my cheesemaking - Environment, Milk and the use of Starter Cultures
01 Aug 2011
 Emilio Festa – Facts that influence my cheesemaking – Environment, Milk and the use of Starter cultures
Temperature has a huge effect on the hows and whys of cheesemaking
- Warmer environments tend towards acid producing products such as kefir, yoghurt, feta all of which should be eaten promptly
- Cooler environment with their dominant microorganisms produce sweeter cheeses which can be stored and eaten after several months
Milk can change its physical, chemical and biochemistry conditions because something happens.
- Bacteria, fungi, enzymes reproduce themselves when in optimal condition and you will find that milk is constituted of
- Water – first indispensable element in any live cell
- Proteins, fat, sugar, minerals – these are micro-organisms
- Enzymes that aid and accelerate many processes
Microorganisms can influence and change the final product. They are already present in fresh milk but many arrive in the next step especially if we do not take care of everything and the latter microorganisms are not welcome because they change the balance of my cheesemaking.
The first step when milk arrives is to sanitize it so we stop any “wild” microorganisms influencing the milk, We increase milk temperature to 63-65degC for 30 minutes or even better some seconds at around 75degC and immediately cool so we “clean it” from the majority of micro-organisms and are ready to proceed.
To coagulate milk into curd – future cheese – we add:
- Microorganisms called “starters” that “growing up” give my cheese the characteristics I want
- And rennet
The best active enzyme in rennet is the “chymosin” that coagulates milk to separate it into solid curd and liquid whey but other important enzymes present in the rennet are pepsina and lipase that act on proteins and fat
There are alternative kinds of rennet and they are:
- Vegetable rennet from fig trees, nettles, thistles, mallow, artichokes ……
- Microbial rennet from moulds, fungi, bacteria
- Genetic rennet from microbial DNA manipulates
Temperatures usually 30 – 38degC, quality and quantity of rennet and length of processing are very important and give different kinds of curd and finally different cheeses
The “starter cultures” used in cheesemaking are microbiological cultures which actually perform fermentation. One can prepare natural bacterial cultures in milk or whey but nowadays dry or frozen cultures are used and made by specialised laboratories
The starters have the effect of
- Increasing the acidity of milk and help the rennet action and loss of whey
- Develop a microbial power usually lactic that influence the ripening of our cheese
- Cause a pH ie. acidity – that is a handicap for the putrefaction
We can add to the milk
- Lactic bacterial ‘home-fermenting’ or hetero-fermenting’ with acidifying action and partially aromatic action
- Propryonic bacteria with aromatic action
- Moulds with lipolitic action
For the bacteria we have three big families
- Psicrofili = the best optimal temperature is between 0 ~ 25degC
- Mesofili = the best optimal temperature is between 20 ~ 40degC
- Termofili – the best optimal temperature is between 45 ~ 60degC
For the ‘yeast’ the optimal temperatures is between 25 ~ 30degC
For the mould 10 ~ 20degC
Another important characteristic that influences the bacteria is the need for oxygen and this causes a
- catabolic action which degrades the enzymes, proteins, fat and sugar and produces acetic acid, lactic acid, CO2 and an
- anabolioc reaction where microorganisms use energy and simple elements for their vital function
To simplify – using different types of starter cultures and changing the cheese process, temperature and times we obtain different end results.
Some starters are suited for some cheeses eg propryonic for Emmenthal but not good for others like Parmigiano. The percentage of water remaining in the curd influences the bacteria’s life and
- different shapes and size of cheese
- humidity of the ripening room
- surface where the future cheese is stored
- ventilation etc
all influence and act upon the final production of the cheese
Final chapter next month - the curding of cheese - Ciao Emilio
Budget special on general mesophilic culture R704
19 May 2011
R704 mesophilic culture is an ideal base culture for many different cheese styles - 50U sachet suitable for up to 500 litres milk. AVAILABLE UNTIL JUNE 30
THESE WILL FLY OUT OF THE DOOR SO BE QUICK!
Understanding the technicalities of milk by Emilio Festa
03 May 2011
Technical background to milk - by Emilio Festa
Every day we drink milk, eat
cheese, enjoy desserts with cream or yogurt, but how is their production
organized? We live in a country where
milk is one of the most important sources of profit and often media talk only
about it, but what does happen to the milk when it is transformed into
cheese? There doesn’t exist a simple and single way to
make it and it is fantastic to know more about those
manufacturing processes.
What is milk?
Milk is an opaque liquid
produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. It provides the primary source of nutrition for new born before they are able to
digest other food.
The first milk is called
‘colostrum’ and it is very important because it contains many antibodies that
mother passes to her baby.
Milk is a complete food in
proteins, fat, vitamins and mineral salts.
It is a very strange liquid where we find water and elements in
solution, in emulsion and in colloidal solution and in nature we don’t have any
other liquid products so stable than milk when fresh and in good state.
+
In the solution there are:
- lactose (sugar)
- mineral salts
- water-soluble
vitamins
- some enzymes
+
In emulsion there are:
- fat
- some enzymes
- lipo-soluble
vitamins
+
In colloidal solution:
- proteins (casein)
- some mineral
salts
- Ca,
Mg, PO4
The components of raw milk change by species:
|
Animal species
|
water
|
proteins
|
fat
|
Lactose
|
|
cow
|
97-89
|
3.4-3.6
|
3.4-3.6
|
4.6-4.7
|
|
buffalo
|
78-84
|
4.4-4.8
|
6-9
|
4.7-4.9
|
|
goat
|
83-89
|
4.0-4.2
|
4.3-4.4
|
4.3-4.7
|
|
Sheep
|
79-82
|
5.6-6.0
|
5-7
|
4.5-5.0
|
|
Donkey
|
89-90
|
1.65
|
1.5
|
6.7
|
|
Whale
|
52-55
|
10
|
35
|
0.7
|
|
Dog
|
81-82
|
9
|
4
|
4.8
|
|
Horse
|
90-91
|
2
|
1.1
|
5.6
|
|
Rabbit
|
70-71
|
13
|
12
|
1.8
|
|
Woman
|
87-88
|
1.4
|
3.3
|
6.6
|
|
Cat
|
81-83
|
9.1
|
4
|
4.9
|
|
Pig
|
82-84
|
7.2
|
5
|
3
|
and in the same
species there are important differences between different breeds:
|
Breed
|
water
|
proteins
|
fat
|
Lactose
|
|
Bruna
Alpina
|
87.25
|
3.25
|
3.6
|
5.15
|
|
Italian
Frison
|
87.5
|
3.3
|
3.9
|
4.8
|
|
Jersey
|
85.85
|
3.66
|
4.97
|
4.70
|
|
Guersney
|
86.31
|
3.50
|
4.58
|
4.78
|
When we talk about milk
usually it is milk of cows and the milk is used to make cheeses, ice creams,
butter, milk to drink, yoghurt, powdered milk and to extract casein, lactose or
to produce food for animals and others,
In Emilio’s next chapter he
will talk to you about technical aspects of making cheese.
From Italy to NZ - Emilio's cheese adventure
08 Apr 2011
 A long time ago after finishing high school, I decided to enrol to a BA of Agriculture at the University of Milan because I always liked the life in the countryside. One of the exams I had to pass was about milk and its products. Until then I never had paid much attention to milk and the cheese world. When I finished the Army Service I found a job in a cheese factory and began to understand better the world of cheese.
I realized also how theoretical school had been and how many secrets there were in the cheese world and I decided to improve my knowledge. In those years there were two important schools full time in Northern Italy where you could study on books and in a real cheese factory. Luckily one of those was only 60km from my working place and I decided to attend it. For one year I worked in the cheese factory early in the nornings, in the evenings, the weekends and all the holidays so that I could finish my cheesemaking course.
A hard and amazing experience. I forgot hobbies and holidays but I consolidated my belief that cheese was my passion. Because one of my duties in the cheese factory was to check the quality of milk delivered (at that time it was seven days a week) at the weekend I asked occasionally to my girlfriend if she liked to come with me when I knew the job was not heavy and dirty. The collection of milk in the cheese factory was "ricevimento" which in the Italian language means "reception". So when friends asked Adriana, my girlfriend, "What do you do this Saturday or Sunday" she answered "I go to the reception with Emilio". They would tell her "You are very lucky to have a boyfriend so important that very often goes to receptions" (thinking to weddings, parties, business ... receptions!)
Not all went as I wanted and when I came back from my honeymoon the cheese factory was closed for financial problem and all my life changed; but not my dream.
That is another story.........
.
Champions of Cheese Winners Announced
31 Mar 2011
The number of entrants for the Curds & Whey Champion Hobbyist Cheese category at the Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards increases each year - a testament to the excellent home cheesemakers in this country.
All categories of cheese were covered from soft to rind to hard cheese and it is a real pleasure to be able to publicise a list of finalists at this year's awards:
Curds & Whey Champion Hobbyist Cheese category:
- Mozzarella - Emilio Festa
- Halloumi - Matthew Hall and Annie Wilson
- Ricotta - Emilio Festa
- Provolone - Emilio Festa
- Caciotta - Emilio Festa
- Mascarpone Petre Morning - Ted Foley
- Farmhouse Camembert - Adrian Walcroft
- Camembert - Linda Cullen
- Brie - Mark Rattray
- Ilam - Lynette Hardie
- Summerset Camembert - Dianna Ussher
- Petre Fatso - Ted Foley
- Roylon Cheddar - Annie Doell
- Padano - Emilio Festa
- Parkstone - Lynette Hardie Wills
Thank you all for your efforts and we look forward to seeing you back with more next year!
Champions of Cheese Hobbyist Mozzarella Winner Announced
08 Mar 2011
Emilio Festa (winner of the Cuisine Champions of Cheese Award 2010) is now our winner in 2011 for his mozzarella.
Emilio at the Cheese Awards dinner last week. A dream to make wonderful Italian cheese in the country of their choice. Emilio is well on his way to realising such a dream as his expertise is considerable and his passion for cheese unremitting. So despite the harrowing circumstances that Adriana and Emilio have endured like so many other Cantabrians it delighted everyone to see Emilio step on stage and receive his well justified award.
Ben fatto Emilio!
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