If you are a regular on this blog, then you know that we have tried to make a lot of cheese in the past. Everything from homemade cream cheese, homemade coby cheese and even my personal favorite homemade farm style cheese recipe. It was only a matter a time before we tried making this Parmesan cheese recipe at home.

Do not let the name fool you, it may sound like French, this cheese is actually Italian. They call it Parmigiano Reggiano, rightfully named after the two regions where they make it. Most people around the world use it as a grated cheese. I am sure you may have already run into the store made version and used if for making things like homemade pizza or just sprinkled over your hot toast like we love to do in our home.

How To Make Parmesian Cheese — Photo credit: littlegreencheese.com

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Here’s What You’ll Need:

full cream milk
semi skimmed milk
thermophilic starter culture
water
non iodized salt
unclorinated water
lipase powder
calcium chloride
rennet
large pot
thermometer
small saucepan
cheese cloths
colander
cheese press
wax
ice cream container (optional)

When you are ready to begin, start by sterilizing all your utensils in a large pot of boiling water. Alternate one litre of each type of milk over a small saucepan. Once mixed, use thermometer to get the mixture to 35 degrees F before carefully adding the thermophilic starter culture and letting it sit for another 15 minutes after mixing well.

Take extra care when following the steps that follow involve cutting the curds into smaller pieces, whilst increasing the temperature. They are then collected into the cheese cloth where the whey is drained before heading over to the press. Get ready to spend a lot of hours at the press, pressing at different weights.

Get your brine solution ready and pour it over the pressed cheese which should now be sitting in an ie cream container, or similar. Let it sit in there at room temperature for up to 24 hours, you should turn it over every few hours. Remove from container and pat it dry with a paper towel before storing it away for up to 10 months in your ‘cheese cave’ which should ideally be 55 degrees F with 80% humidity.

For the first week the cheese needs to be turned over daily, after that you can turn it over every week or so. Scrap away any leftover paper towel, brine or even mould that may grow on your cheese. Waxing can be done after about 90 days. This recipe makes about 2 pounds of homemade Parmesan cheese. Mmmmm enjoy! 🙂

You can follow step by step instructions on the Little Green Cheese blog, here…