Muenster Cheese

I'm trying my hand at making a hard cheese. Muenster. One of my friends who raises goats has tried making it twice. It is incredibly simple to make! There are only three ingredients. Milk, rennet and salt. I usually get flustered about making cheese because they want you to use certain cultures, which I do have some on hand, but I am not sure how to use them correctly. It's like when the recipe calls for 1/2 tablet of rennet, but we have liquid rennet. Then I have to go see how much liquid rennet to use in place of the tablet.

I brought the milk in and strained it and found I had 3 quarts. When I brought the milk in it was almost at the required temperature of 88°F. I added a quart from yesterday and heated the milk back up.

After it reaches 88°F you let it set for 5 minutes. Then you take your 1/4 teaspoon of liquid rennet, mixed with 1/4 cup of water, and pour it into the milk. Use a whisk to make sure you get the rennet mixed in well. I also used bottled water, to make sure I wasn't adding any funky bacteria from our well water. Not that our water is bad, but sometimes it's best to use "clean" water so as to not add to the mix.

Cover and let set for one hour.

After one hour, test for a clean break in your curds. Cut with a sharp knife into 1 inch cubes. Heat the curds while mixing carefully.

Remove the curds and let the whey drain for 20 minutes. Then put the curds into a cheese press.

Cheese press?

Oops. I don't have a cheese press. So I set about looking on the Internet for how to make one of my own.

I found one by Mr. Fankhauser (quite a famous cheese maker on the Internet) and one by Ms. Molly from Fias Co Farms.

Between the two of those sites, I got the gist of what needed to be done to press the whey out of my cheese, so I went for a walk out on our property to see what I could come up with.

First I found two of these - 3" Black PVC Couplers, commonly used for septic lines. I was actually looking for 6" diameter, which is what Mr. Fankhauser recommends, but we didn't have any, at least not that I could locate.

Next, I found these 10# weights.

And finally, I found this old racquetball racquet.


After I drained my curds for 20 minutes, I molded them into a shape which would fit into the PVC coupler. First I put in a layer of cheesecloth.


Next I used a can of green chiles as the follower. I peeled the label off after I took this photograph.

Next, I placed a can of tuna on top. Now these couplers have an inner lip inside and the tuna can is too wide to go past that point, so you can only use the tuna can for pushing on the top half.

After an hour or so had passed, I discovered that my can of green chiles was too narrow and was allowing the cheese to squish up around the sides. So I found a lid that fit perfectly, and would still move down past the inner lip of the coupler.

The inner lip is shown here, and pointed out with arrows.

This lid is a much better follower than the can of green chiles.

Lionel gives his seal of approval. I realized my set up was too precarious just sitting on the counter, so I put it in a milk crate on the floor.


My forty pound "weight" at top, which is sitting on the can inside the PVC couplers, and the couplers are sitting on the racquetball racquet. The whole thing sits on a cake pan. For the sake of taking this photo, I placed the weights flush onto the PVC couplers. But after I put my setup back into the milk crate I put a tuna can inside so the weights are actually pressing on the can.

As the cheese presses down, I've had to use different size cans to make sure the weights are not sitting flush on top of the PVC couplers.

After the cheese has been pressed for 12 hours, I have to turn it upside down and press it in the other direction for another 12 hours. Then I am supposed to give it a fine coating of cheese salt, and cover with a plate so it doesn't dry out, and let it just set for at least one week before trying it.

I'll try to post more photos when I flip the curd for the second pressing.

Until next time.

Related Posts:
Muenster Cheese Day Two