Cheese Press

[amateur]

Following on from my attempt to make a hard cheese, as detailed in Food and Drink, I decided to have another go and make a goats cheese, but to improve on the makeshift cake tin press that I used last time.

I had some aluminium tube that had been kicking around the workshop for the past 30 years being saved for such a project, so I cut a length off and turned it true(ish).

I had some 1/4" plate and 1" bar, so Lumiwelded 2 short lengths of bar to the plates and turned them circular to size in the lathe to form the end-caps.

I then drilled the drain holes.

I use a large G clamp to apply the pressure

Of course, when I ordered the rennet, proper cheesecloth, lactobacillus and dried goats milk from a supplier of cheesemaking sundries, I discovered that he sold plastic cheese presses for less than £20.

Mine was free!

I apologise to any machinists and craftsmen on here. I am "the amateur"

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by amateur

[ditchman]

bloody excellent ............

[amateur]

12 minutes ago, ditchman said:

bloody excellent ............

Thanks, Simon.

It's only since I adjusted the lathe, following your advice, that the damned thing is turning true (ish)

[Flyboy1950]

Nowt wrong with that. Looks good.

FB

[Walker570]

Excellent, now we need to see AND TASTE the cheese.

[amateur]

I'm starting on the goats' cheese tonight.

Reading the proper method, though, it will take a day to make the culture, plus another day to make and drain the curd, then a couple of days in the press, followed by a week or three to mature.

It's a good job that I've got sod all else to do 😁

[7daysinaweek]

Proper job that!

Keep us posted.

[panoma1]

Genuine question....Is aluminium safe to use for food manufacture for human consumption??

[davewh100]

39 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

Genuine question....Is aluminium safe to use for food manufacture for human consumption??

one of the coffee machines made by the company i work for use an aluminium boiler being a food grade one but it does have an anodize lining ones the lining starts to break away it's no good, so this is a very good question

[amateur]

10 hours ago, panoma1 said:

Genuine question....Is aluminium safe to use for food manufacture for human consumption??

I shall no doubt find out, but having eaten food cooked in aluminium saucepans and wrapped in aluminium foil over the years, I guess that the risk is small.

The curds will be wrapped in muslin in the press and in the press for a maximum of a couple of days.

If I detect any deterioration of the surface,  I will invest in a plastic one. 

Hasn't aluminium been implicated in dementia? In which case my family would probably not notice any changes in me 😁

[51/50]

Impressive job done there,i think it's safe to say that by having the ability to craft up items like that you've somewhat surpassed the level of an amateur!

[Walker570]

Superb, look forward to the result.  Is aluminium food safe when almost all our drinks cans are made from that material and used throughout the food industry....try a bakery for instance.

[amateur]

32 minutes ago, 51/50 said:

Impressive job done there,i think it's safe to say that by having the ability to craft up items like that you've somewhat surpassed the level of an amateur!

Thanks very much for that.

My late father, a chartered mechanical engineer, would have been highly derisory had I suggested that I was anything other than an amateur

 

[Rob85]

There was some link proposed between aluminium and dementia but it must be relatively small. Used to see riveters in my place with a mouthful of alloy rivets to speed their job up if they were riveting up a full fuselage joint or buttstrap. Tend to hear guys crying more about carbon fibre in our work now.

[Hornet99]

I looked into the aluminium and dementia but I think it was concluded it was/is urban myth

[ditchman]

8 hours ago, Hornet99 said:

I looked into the aluminium and dementia but I think it was concluded it was/is urban myth

many years ago...there was a story that one of the local water companies overdosed the works with aluminium sulphate AuSo4....and it turned peoples hair to a greenish tinge..

[TIGHTCHOKE]

2 minutes ago, ditchman said:

many years ago...there was a story that one of the local water companies overdosed the works with aluminium sulphate AuSo4....and it turned peoples hair to a greenish tinge..

Yes that was a whole tanker full though!

[ditchman]

4 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes that was a whole tanker full though!

do you remember the story then ?.............they were going on about dementia even then and aluminium pots and stuff

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh yes, I remember it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelford_water_pollution_incident

Edited July 21, 2020 by TIGHTCHOKE
Addition of link.

[ditchman]

that was quite an incident..............i wonder if there is any come back in 2020..........it killed a hell of a lot of trout and salmon as well when flushing out the pipes..

[TIGHTCHOKE]

30 minutes ago, ditchman said:

that was quite an incident..............i wonder if there is any come back in 2020..........it killed a hell of a lot of trout and salmon as well when flushing out the pipes..

I strongly suspect many of the people involved will have been moved or sacked or payed off.

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I strongly suspect many of the people involved will have been moved or sacked or payed off.

what about the customers..............have they developed any conditions ?

bet they are being moinitored.secretly

[enfieldspares]

Very nice. In France they use what look like cut down plastic white drainage pipes. As there's enough strength in the plastic to support the pressure of the weighted disc on the top.

[Hornet99]

https://health.usnews.com/conditions/alzheimers/articles/is-there-a-connection-between-aluminum-and-alzheimers-disease#:~:text=Aluminum can be a neurotoxin%2C and if you,your brain%2C it can cause a dementia-like condition.”

[hawkeye]

The main thing did the cheese turn out OK