DIY Cheese Molds

Yesterday, Ivy and I started making French Chevre goat cheese. It's a several day process. On the first day, we heated the milk, then added buttermilk (for cultures) and rennet, then let it sit overnight. This morning, we scooped the curds into cheese molds. Here I ran into a slight snag because I only had two molds and far more curds than molds. I temporarily put the extra cheese curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth until I could get to the store. At Walmart, I found some Rubbermaid to-go containers that looked roughly the same capacity as my cheese molds. When I got home with the containers, I heated up a screw using one of the gas burners on my stove. Then I melted oodles of small holes into the container from the very bottom up to the top. I spooned the curds from the colander into my two new "molds," and the whey started weeping out the holes immediately. Success!

And the best part? It cost barely over $2 for both of my two new molds, compared to over $5/each plus shipping if I ordered them online. Plus they have lids to stick over the top so I don't have to drape them with foil while they drain.

The cheese has to drain another day, but I had a little nibble already and it's pretty tasty! You can see how much has already drained by comparing the top and bottom pictures. The square containers were heaped over the top when I first scooped the curds into them.