How to make a small cheese cave

a cheese cave is where the magic of cheese "happens".  The slightly fermented milk curds are left in controlled cool damp dark area to "mature" and finish the transition from milk to some amazing flavor of naturally fermented and aged cheese. I the olden days, it might ell be an actual "cave" where the air is always cool and moist. Today, we create cave conditions through some means.

For our size of cheese operation, we choose to build a cave from a fridge. Not the typical fridge / freezer, but a fridge only. It is the size of a normal kitchen fridge freezer, but without the freezer part, the interior is just a big open space with shelves. The freezer would only waste space for no good reason.

But... there must be a modification. Fridges are too cold. Cheese does best aged at 50 to 60 degreesF. Fridge thermostats can not go that high. To accomplish this, we added a new thermostat. One from a home brew store for about $40. This is a simple mechanical thermostat with a dial range from 30 to 90. Digital ones are also available , but seem an overkill for this application. the mechanical one works fine and is cheaper.

These thermostats are made to "plug in" between the AC plug and the wall socket, to control the power to the entire device. A decent approach for home brewing, but not for cheesemaking.  To keep the air inside the cave "live" and working properly requires breeze, airflow, as you would find in a real cave. We tried to age cheese without this and the humidity was just too hard to maintain. The mold growth was off. The aging wasnt consistent. To overcome this problem, requires some wiring.

Its simple. There are 3 basic component to a fridge: thermostat, fan, and compressor.  The thermostat turns "on" when the interior temp rises too high. This applies electricity to both the internal fan and the compressor. The compressor moves heat from inside to outside and the fan circulates the air inside to make cooling even.  To age cheese we want the fan to run constantly but the compressor to be controlled by the new thermostat set to 55 degrees.

This is accomplished by simply finding the "hot wire" going to the compressor. There are always at least 2 wires... hot and neutral. (some may also have starting capacitor wires). It is important to find hte hot wire for this to work properly. the fridge wiring diagram will help in locating which this is, or a little investigation work of tracing wires can help. Whichever method, find the "hot" wire and cut it (MAKE SURE THE FRIDGE IS UNPUGGED!).  then run a set of wires (i use an old exterior extension cord piece) from the two cut ends to the thermostat.  Simply connect a wire to each side of the thermostat, so that when the thermostat clicks "in", the two wires are connected, making the circuit complete to the compressor.  Make sure all the connections are covered and safe, and thats it!

Now run the thermosat sensor through the back side of the door and into the cave. It can hang somewhere near the middle out in the open. .

Now, when the interior thermostat is turned on (the setting doesnt really matter). It will always call for "cold" because the interior will be held at about 50 degrees.  The second thermostat will click on the compressor only to get down to 50 and turn off, but because the interior is still on, the interior fan runs constantly. The defrost timer and interior light even work as expected.

The last step is to cut and sand some clean, aged pine boards to fit on the shelves, leaving about an inh of space between them and around them for airflow. Cheese ages best on wood, and the wood will greatly help to maintain the humidity by soaking up the excess water from the cheese blocks and slowly redistributing it into the air.

I like to put in a small temp / humidity sensor that will track hi/low over time to ensure that the temp and humidity stay within range.  Opening the cave every day to check on things will provide enough fresh air to control bad mold growth.

and there you go! we get enough space in this cave to age up to about 30 5lb cheese blocks at a time, which would represent a block made every other day for the required 60 says. thats more capacity than we need for now, but adding another cave for longer aging would be simple.

thats how we did it... and it works beautifully at our scale.

Getting ready for cheese making!

It's been several months pause in our Cheese business that is now coming to an end.  I spent the afternoon yesterday finishing the new cheese cave (a Fridge without freezer).  Today will see the  kitchen tidied up and organized after the winter pause.

Why the pause?  Well....  Winter is our only chance to slow down around here.  To save our own sanity,  it's necessary to not "Sprint"  always.  One way to do this Thai makes sense is to follow the seasons.  Winter had shorter days,  less daylight.  This traditionally equates to less work per day.  Just because we can flip a switch and make light today,  doesn't mean we should!  Our creator built in cycles and limits into nature,  and set would be wise to follow those.  So...  Winter is our slow time.

Another practical reason is less milk.  Less milk production was partly due to winter and partly due to breeding difficulties last summer.  But the milk supply is now increasing and with that...  Cheese!

Stay tuned for a the fun flavors coming this year.  And remember..  There is a small amount of last years cheese left for sale.  The last two blocks of well agreed cheese will be available soon!

Three more Yummy cheese flavors ready!

Today we packaged three more cheeses for you to try.. and WOW.. YUM!

Block 15 is CHIVE and GARLIC cheddar

A fairly heavy garlic flavor with onion undertones in a nice soft cheese. This would be great with salads or to accompany heavier flavored meals.

Block 16 is ONION and SAGE cheddar

This is a softer onion flavor with a hint of sage to brighten it. Very appetizing as a stand alone flavored cheese. Not too heavy to be enjoyed solo.

Block 17 is VANILLA BLUEBERRY cheddar

WOW, this is nice. Hunter calls it "muffin cheese" because the flavor and texture reminds him of eating a fresh blueberry muffin. It is extra soft cheddar, with a tart flavor balanced with a medium strong vanilla flavor and bits of real blueberries. What a flavor experience! This one is a GREAT dessert cheese for after dinner or snack.


All of these cheeses are raw, aged over 60 days with natural rinds, vacuumed sealed for freshness into 5 ounce wedges.

If you havent tried the Sprouts Goat Milk Cheese, now is the time. 6 new flavors added just this week! Please do NOT compare these to normal goat cheese. There is NO hint of that goaty flavor in these. Just pure white bright cheddar flavor that is pleasing to the pallet as well as the senses.

Jalapeno Goat Cheddar

And here is our first block of jalapeno goat cheddar cheese fresh out of the press! the moisture level and texture of this block seems the best yet! At this point, the taste is a mild jalapeno. Lets see how it ages.

Are you hungry yet?

First block of cheese tasted... Success!

Well we did it.  At 3 1/2 weeks we cut open for first ever block of little sprouts cheese for taste test.  It's early..  Sure.  Still has a few weeks to go,  but I had to see if this goat cheese we are making has the dreaded "goaty"  flavor and aroma.

The verdict is.....  YUM!

Not a hunt of goaty flavor nor smell!  Celebration!

Th4 texture is a bit off,  slightly dry and chalky for my liking,  but 5hats easy to fix.  The flavor wa a nice mild cheddar.  We even melted some down on a corn tortilla for a quick lunch snack and it was excellent.

So..  Onward!  Tod a we put the cranberry cheddar in the cave and started a nice jalapeño cheddar.   We have some exciting flavors planned as things settle into routine :)

Stay tuned!

Cranberry goat chedder

Here's a shot of a cranberry goat cheddar in process.  You can see the curds and whey being stirred with dried cranberries.

Hopefully this will turn out a mild cheddar with very tart cranberries through out.  Unfortunately we won't know for...  60 days!

New cheese cave installed!

Woo-hoo!  We found a great deal on a new "cheese cave"  that fits our needs perfectly!   The cave is really a frost free stand up freezer with a special add on temperature controller.   But hey...  It works like a cave!

Frost free is necessary because we age cheese at 53 degrees.  A normal stand up freezer has coils under the shelves.  When the compressor runs,  the cools cool and frost over.  When the compressor quits,  the 50 degree condition melts the frost and....  Dripping water from each shelf.  Not good!  Frost free has coils in the back which eliminate the problem.

The temperature controller is from an online home brew store.  It accepts a 110v plug,  and through a seperate bulb temp sensor allows setting of gemperature from about 30 to 70 degrees.  Works quick and easy!  Just plug the freezer into it,  and plug it into the wall,  set whatever temp you like and it just works.

Why a freezer?  Space!  Fridges almost always have built in freezers.  That is wasted space for us.  You can't keep both at the same temp,  so only one is useable.  Freezers are a big box all the same temp :)

Humidity?  We are monitoring that....  Might need to add humidity for cheese aging,  since the frost free nature removes internal humidity.  But then again.  Because of daily openings allowing fresh air in,  and higher temp meaning less running,  maybe not.  Remains to be seen.

So here it is.  Cheese cave!  We have our first 6 blocks of goat cheddar aging now,  each wrapped in a coating of bright red cheese wax.  The one on the shelf is yesterday's block being salted daily while waiting for waxing.

Taste tests are very positive!  And we are learning....  But well on our way.  The plan for now is to keep producing 2 to 3  blocks of cheese,  about 6 lbs each,  of various cheddar flavors.  Jalapeño will be next!  But my goal is a nice mild blueberry cheddar desert cheese :)

All of our cheese are raw organic high nutrient goats milk from our own milk,  aged at least 60 days before sell.   The clock is ticking!

Cheese batch number 2

Here is our second batch of cheese....  Another raw milk cheddar.  This one will be about 6 to 8 lbs in a block.

First block of little sprouts cheese!

Today I took o7r first ever block of raw goats cheese out of the cheese press!  Exciting!

This first block is a plain goat cheddar and weighs in at 2 lbs,  9 Oz from 2 gallons of little sprouts goat milk.  Not bad!  (the recipe predicted 2 lbs,  so we are 25% higher in fat and solids than expected).  Plus it produced 6 liters of cheese whey!

Now on to the aging in our cheese cave, Which takes 3 months to be sellable.

Tasting the block going into aging gives no detectable "goaty"  flavor,  so hopefully the end product will not taste goaty.  That is our goal...  To produce goat cheese high in fat that does not taste goaty!

Stay tuned.....