Well, here we are again with another fascinating cheesemaker. Fred has a million hobbies, he has traveled around the world, he has published a photography book and he makes fabulous cheese.
On top of all that, he has compiled an extensive amount of research about making cheese in the form of 2 spreadsheets:
- Cheese Recipe Index. Fred created this index because he found it difficult to find interesting recipes from all the books, videos and websites available. There are, at this point, 233 recipes on his list and he is adding more all the time. It, of course, includes recipes from our website (cheesemaking.com).
- Cheese Make pH Markers. This is another sorting and indexing project where he has listed the sets of pH markers for almost 100 cheeses. One of his sources is the Cheese Science Toolkit which has the pH ranges for hundreds of cheeses. (He would welcome any input/comments/additions.)
Fred’s Story
I’m a reliability engineering and management consultant and founder of the reliability engineering professional development site, Accendo Reliability (accendoreliability.com).
My work has taken me around the world and I have enjoyed working with teams on a wide range of products, factories, and systems to support product and system reliability. I teach, coach, consult and write about reliability engineering.
On a personal side, besides maintaining and improving our home, my many hobbies and interests keep me in a learning mode:
Traveling …
Biking …
Hiking …
Mountain and rock climbing …
Photography …
A book with a collection of flower images.
Gardening …
Also canning, home brewing, and woodworking.
Living in a rural, high fire danger area, I spend time helping neighbors remove brush and ladder fuels from our community.
Cheesemaking:
I got into cheese making much as I got into a lot of other hobbies or activities -“There is always a way.” During a visit to northern Italy, my wife and I enjoyed cheese plates, on occasion. Once back home, we tried to find the range of wonderful cheeses we had enjoyed on vacation, but we couldn’t. The pecorino and the Alpine cheeses made in Italy created very fond memories, and we just could not find these cheeses in the US.
So, 3 years ago, considering there is always a way, we decided to learn how to make cheese. We found an introduction to cheese making class offered by Love Apple Farms in nearby Santa Cruz, California. We learned to make feta, chèvre, and mozzarella. It was fun and the resulting cheese, encouraging.
Then to books, YouTube, various websites, and eventually finding the online classes offered by Kate Johnson at The Art of Cheese. The encouragement and advice from the Art of Cheese community of home cheesemakers and range of resources helped turn the idea to make the memorable cheese from our Italian vacation into a reality. While not quite there, we are steadily making progress.
As you would say at New England Cheesemaking Supply Co., “There is always a whey.” Besides, it’s a challenge that has proven fun to master.
I started making cheeses with yogurt, then fresh cheeses like feta, chèvre, ricotta, and mozzarella, even a cultured butter once.
Dove into making hard cheese with a farmhouse cheddar and it turned out great. The list of makes continues with Fontina, Alpine Tomme, Montasio, Parmesan, Asiago, Hispanico (cow milk Manchego), Tete de Moine, Tomme Mountain Style, Guido’s Italian Hard Cheese (a short aging, easy make recipe from The Art of Cheese), Camembert, Selles Sur Cher, Gruyere, Appenzeller, Asiago Pepato, Emmental, and Bondon.
Yogurt, feta, chèvre, and Parmesan get made regularly as they are household staples.
The list is not complete as I didn’t keep very good (none actually) records for the first year or so.
The non-homogenized, low-temperature pasteurized cow’s milk I use is from the Straus Family Creamery. The goat’s milk is from the Summerhill Goat Dairy. I did find and try buffalo milk once, very expensive stuff, from Morsey’s.
My wife once bought a quart of ultra-pasteurized goat’s milk, and the folks from our weekly cheese chat recommended Kate Johnson’s (The Art of Cheese) recipe for goat milk caramel (now also a household staple).
There are plenty of wonderful challenges when making cheese, like having too many options for cheeses to make. There seem to be plenty of options these days to learn the craft – from local and online classes, videos, articles, websites, and books. Finding time to make cheese is my biggest challenge.
The next biggest challenge is being consistent over time. Keeping notes does really help when trying to replicate a make that turned out great, or when troubleshooting those that didn’t.
Challenges abound – such as mozzarella that just won’t stretch to curds that just won’t knit when pressing. The recipes provide a guide, yet are not able to account for your specific milk being used, room temperature, and the many other factors that may require a bit of adjustment to overcome.
Sometimes, just being patient works well. Other times, it is a tad more heat, or maybe a bit more weight. I think the primary challenge, which is why I like cheese making so much, is paying attention to details and learning the art of ‘reading’ your curds or cheese during the process.
It’s amazing what one can make with just milk and a few other ingredients. The process makes such a difference in the cheeses while using essentially the exact same ingredients. It’s fascinating.
To get started, all you really need is a recipe, some milk, and maybe a few other ingredients. Depending on how you like to learn, maybe a course, book, or video would help boost your confidence and successes. While there is a lot that one could learn about cheesemaking, the best way, I think, is to learn by making cheese, asking questions, learning along the way, and enjoying the results.
When first starting, I just followed the recipe and most of the time the process went well and the resulting cheese was good. Yet, with an intent to make better cheese, the ongoing challenge is to learn more about the art of cheesemaking so the results are great.
The other day at the grocery store, when checking out with a gallon of goat milk, the checker asked what I was going to do with the milk. She seemed surprised with the answer of ‘making cheese.’ “That’s so cool,” she said.
It is pretty cool, making cheese that is. For anyone considering making cheese, knowing exactly what is in the cheese you’re consuming, and wanting to enjoy both the process and the results – I say, just get started.
Ricki Carroll says
Fred, I love to write something to each one of the amazing people who take the time to share parts of their story with our readers. However after reading you story I am speechless, what the heck can I say to a guy who does it all? Reading your story brought back memories of my dad who flew into Lukla airport to start his trek to the base of Everest. He climbed all over the world.
You have taken full advantage of all life has to give. Your cheeses look sublime, everything you take on you jump into with such enthusiasm zest and skill. I am in awe and very humbled by your life’s adventures. Thank you a thousand times gor bringing so much light into the world and for sharing your story with our cheese making family
Keep in touch.
In peace, love and cheese
With great admiration, Ricki
Fred Schenkelberg says
Hi Ricki,
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks to you and your ability to encourage, teach, and enable folks to make cheese that is truly remarkable. You and your team have an impact on an entire industry and with so many home cheesemakers. I’ve been truly fortunate to have crossed paths with you and New England Cheese – started with one of your kits and found support and encouragement with each step in my cheese-making adventure.
Thanks for all you do!
cheers,
Fred
Hi Fred,
I am thinking about building out a cheese cave from a wine cooler. I see you had the grotto custom made which you said helped a lot. What type of wine cooler did you buy? Do you have any recommendations?
Hi Nate,
The wine fridge is Newair AWR-520SB a 52 Bottle Built-in Compressor Wine Cooler. It’s nice as the shelves are flat wooden slats
cheers,
Fred
Fred!! What a busy guy!! You are like me! We just love learning and enjoying the beautiful things in life! I love your garden!! It is just perfect. And I love all the traveling you have done. Your cheeses look great too. And I really like the idea of the grotto inside the wine fridge. I will read your responses to learn more about it. Congratulations on all you do and keep loving life!
Hi Zorana,
Totally agree – there is so many wonderful ways to enjoy this world – best to just get out there a enjoy.
The grotto is custom made by the folks at the Cheese Grotto, https://cheesegrotto.com, it works very well at keeping the temperature and humidity stable on target.
cheers,
Fred
Hi Fred…What inspiration..I’m from Montreal Canada and I envy your beautiful garden..difficil to create here with our winter.. I began my cheesemaking history 5month ago, I made feta, goat cheese, mozzarella, halloumi..and Camembert.. next step..hard cheese like Ementhal..Tome.. parmigiano ..etc..Thank you for your inspiration, I’m semi retired 🙂 and making cheese, golf and ski will be my nearly future complete retired program…excuse my english I’m french
Anne-Marie
Hi Anne-Marie,
You’re a cheese maker, too! The hard cheeses are not all the difficult to make, just a few more steps. The hard part is waiting for them to be ready.
For gardening – in a northern climate check out the work of Niki Jabbour – https://savvygardening.com/author/niki-jabbour/ she has a book about year-round vegetable gardening and she’s has photos of picking lettuce after moving the snow out of the way. My climate is a bit more forgiving, yet still has challenges.
cheers,
Fred
Thank you,Fred! Just a really good post about cheesemaking! I would appreciate learning more about your cheese grotto. Did you buy or make this? I know I need one.
Hi Suzanne, the insert into the wine fridge is custom made by the folks at the Cheese Grotto, cheesegrotto.com, I was struggling to keep the humidity up and the temperature stable – and thought the extra enclosure with the humidity bricks would do the trick. Sure did – temp went from a 5 to 10-degree swinging cycle around 55°F to steady 55 plus/minus 1 degree.The humidity was even better – I was using a tray of water, damp towels, and barely able to achieve 70 RH – with the grotto, quickly got to 85RH and have to refresh/soak the bricks about once a month to maintain and steady 85RH – I use plastic tubs if the cheese needs a higher humidity, yet most of what I make does just fine at 55°F and 85%RH.
Thank you so much. Humidity has been the one important factor I have not been able to control. Your ability to not only produce cheese but to so generously share your cheese journey is inspiring. I’m very grateful!
Hi Suzanne,
happy to share what I know, as I’ve learned so much from so many others in this adventure of making cheese.
cheers,
Fred
Your story is amazing. A wonderful life of many adventures. So true about finding enough time
Thank you for all your inspiration
Could you tell me the type of wood used for your fridge insert
Thank you
Barbi
Hi Barbi,
The wood is bamboo, i think. The folks at the Cheese Grotto, https://cheesegrotto.com custom made it to fit the fridge.
cheers,
Fred
Well done fred. I went over visual vita several time. True renaissance person.
You are an inspiration! Thanks for sharing your pictures and stories.
Thanks Donna, happy cheese making! cheers, Fred
You are one interesting man there Fred. Good on you!!! Thanks fir sharing your story and giving my fear of starting cheesemaking a bit of a kick in the nether region. Your products look amazing! Your ingenuity and creativity are staggering. You are creating and having a wonderful life. That makes me smile from ear to ear!
Thanks Mare, likewise smiling thanks for the kind words, cheers, Fred – now go make some cheese!
Wow, Fred – you blow me “a-whey”! I’ve known you through our classes and the cheesemaking club at The Art of Cheese for some time now but had no idea you do THIS MANY other things – impressive!!
Thanks Kate – much of my cheese making is due to your support and my adventure side – yet, the cheese is good, and that is on you.
Thanks again for all the support and classes.
cheers,
Fred
Aww you’re too kind but you know good cheese is on the cheesemaker! I’m just the messenger – lol!