12/02/2026
Successful Milk Processing and Cheesemaking
1. The Three Pillars of Success
To obtain a high-quality product, three factors must be strictly observed:
- Hygiene: Absolute cleanliness of hands, utensils, work surfaces, and cleaning cloths is the basic requirement.
- Cultures: The use of the correct cultures (e.g., lactic acid cultures) is crucial for the ripening process.
- Precision: Recipes must be followed exactly with regard to quantities, times, and temperatures.
2. Preparation and Hygiene
Before you begin, you should ensure the following points:
- All equipment and containers that come into contact with milk must first be washed with hot water.
- Equipment must be clean, warm, and wet when in use.
- Fresh, body-warm milk should ideally be processed into cheese immediately.
- For direct marketing, stored milk must first be heated to 75 °C and this temperature must be maintained for 1 minute.
3. Necessary Basic Equipment
The following equipment is recommended to start milk processing:
- Thermometer: A special cheese thermometer for temperature control.
- Molds & Cloths: Various cheese molds as well as cheesecloths made of nylon or cotton and cheese fleece.
- Dosing: A 3 ml syringe for precise dosing of rennet and cultures.
- Insulation: A Styrofoam base or cork plate for cooking pots to retain heat.
- Cultures & Ferments: Lactic acid cultures, yogurt cultures, rennet, and if necessary mold or red smear cultures.
4. The Basic Principle of Cheesemaking
The production process is divided into the following steps:
- Heat the milk: Bring the milk to the temperature specified in the recipe.
- Add cultures: Add lactic acid cultures and observe the prescribed waiting time.
- Add rennet: Add rennet extract and wait until the milk coagulates.
- Processing: Perform a gel test, cut the curd (prepare the curd), and stir if necessary.
- Filling: Fill the finished curd into the cheese molds.
5. Important Practical Tips
- Storage of cultures: Freeze-dried cultures must be returned to the freezer immediately after use. They must not come into contact with water, as this destroys the cultures.
- Types of milk: While goat’s milk is processed almost identically to cow’s milk, sheep’s milk requires an adapted procedure.