[Cheese] HELP??? New

[Doug Snyder]

I'm also new here.  Been lurking for a while and have decided to jump  
in.

I've been making cheese only for a couple months.  I got a mozzarella  
kit from Leener's.   Using a variety of grocery store milk I've made  
several batches of Ricotta, two batches that were very provolon'ish,  
and two batches that have turned out mozzarella.  The two that have  
turned out correctly I believe have as much to do with the milk as  
with my technique, although I have learned some tricks from the first  
few batches.  I discovered that one can actually buy raw milk here in  
California.  The local Whole Foods store has two types, one grass fed  
and one grain fed.  I'm excited about moving forward to hard cheeses  
now.

I have a press but not a fridge to age in.  I looked at Erica's  
recommendation here then did a little googling and saw this:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx? 
Prodid=11068722&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

Which looks very interesting.  The "red wine" setting of 54° seems  
about perfect.  Has anyone tried or seen this fridge/cooler?

Thanks,
Doug:~



On Jan 6, 2006, at 12:41 PM, Erica Schechter wrote:

> Welcome to the list and to the hobby!
>
> I order all my supplies from dairyconnection.com . They have great
> prices and a really nice selection. FWIW, they ship every Monday. I've
> gotten some equipment from cheesemaking.com, as they have a wider
> selection of molds, thermometers, and so on.
>
> I use this refrigerator for aging my cheeses:
> http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/
>
> Here are some links for getting started:
>
> http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/index.htm
> http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html
> http://www.cheesemaking.com/text-cPath-37- 
> PHPSESSID-02d6f4ed7c041cf7758fd977fccc26c4.php
>
> Best of luck!
> --Erica