I knew opening the small refrigerator that it was going to be Parmageddon. I had kind of abandoned the cheese a few weeks before. And I was right. It was Parmageddon. If I had dropped the cheese on my foot I would have broken it. My foot, not the cheese! Geez.

How did all this come about? About a year ago I decided I would try to make parmesan cheese–again. I had tried once before and failed. I figured I had about a fifty-fifty chance of this attempt working but it was better than no chance. I’ve made some Manchego, and Cheddar with good success, and I make butter, sour cream, and cream cheese on a regular basis. Parmesan would be a step up, and I was up for it.

Fundamentally making cheese is not difficult. It’s about manipulating temperature over time, pressure over time, and then waiting (more time). To make parmesan you need the following ingredients and tools:

• 2 Gallons of low-fat milk (not Ultrapasteurized)
• Thermophilic Starter
• Liquid Rennet
• 1 Gallon Brine
• 1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
• Large pot
• Large bowl
• Spoon
• Curd knife
• Cheese Cloth

and here are the steps¹:

• Heat milk to 90° F
• Add starter and let sit for 90 minutes
• Add rennet and stir for 2 minutes
• Cover and let sit for 30 minutes
• Cut the curd into cubes
• Heat curd to 124° F
• Pour off the whey
• Line a 2 pound cheese mold with cheesecloth
• Press curds at 5 pounds for 15 minutes
• Press curds at 10 pounds for 30 minutes
• Press curds at 15 pounds for 2 hours
• Press curds at 20 pounds for 12 hours
• Remove curds from press and remove cheese cloth
• Brine for 24 hours at room temperature
• Remove cheese from brine and age at 55° F and 85% humidity for at least 10 months

Now you wait one year with regular checkins and you have yummy cheese–or in my case something that could be used as a paver. The problem that I had was that you need to keep the cheese cave at a relatively low temperature, 55° F, with a humidity of 85%. This is difficult at best to achieve, especially when you have a small space to work in. I tried putting a lexan full of water in the little refrigerator but that wasn’t enough. Some research suggested that a mixture of salt and water might do the trick. Nope. I tried putting a fan on top of the lexan to get the air moving. Nope again. In the end the best I could do was about 50% humidity. And that was just too low. As a result the cheese dried out over the course of the year.

The takeaway for me is that parmesan is likely out of reach for me in the near term. But that doesn’t mean I can’t make other cheeses that are less fussy about humidity.

DISCLAIMER: There are no affiliate links in this post. If you see a link to a product it’s because I like it and think it’s useful–that’s it.

Notes

1. Obviously this is an abbreviated list of steps. For more detailed instructions see Ricki Carroll’s book, Home Cheese Making which is the book that I used to learn how to make cheese.

This article was originally posted on my Kitchen Ramblings blog May 23, 2022, and is being reposted here so more people can enjoy it.

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