Cheesemaking sanitation - 4 Simple Steps

Sanitation is an important first step for making delicious homemade cheese. Cheesemaking sanitation is particularly important when making hard cheeses. It’s the only way to ensure that your milk (and cheese) has been cultured by the correct strains of bacteria.

This post on sanitation for cheesemaking is part of a series of posts on cheesemaking. Check out How to make cheese at home for more information on cheesemaking.

SANITATION and Sterilization

Sanitation is when you clean something really well. It removes the surface bacteria and fungus, but not everything. Sanitation is usually good enough for fresh cheeses, that you plan on eating within a few weeks.

Sterilization is when every single bacteria, virus or fungus is killed. It is necessary for making hard cheese, but it’s a good idea for all types of cheese.

BASIC GUIDELINES:

Pull your hair back.
Wash your hands and sing “baa baa black sheep” under running water, before touching anything to do with food preparation.
Wipe down your counters with a sanitation solution, especially if you use a few different types of culture in your kitchen. Sourdough, kefir and kombucha are all contaminants when it comes to making cheese.
Sanitize all of your equipment, before use.

METHODS OF SANITIZING

There are several different ways of sanitizing equipment. I usually fill up one of my sinks with a commercial sanitizer and keep all my equipment stored there while I’m making cheese. Here are a 3 different methods of sanitizing:

Boiling: Fill a large pot up with water and bring it to a boil. Boil all of your glass and metal implements for 5 minutes. *This won’t work for plastic and wooden items.*
Bleach: Dip items in a solution of 2 tbsp of bleach per gallon of water. Rinse items well prior to use. Bleach can also be used for spraying down surfaces.
Commercial Sanitizers: There are many different types of commercial sanitizers available. I use iodophor sanitizer for cheesemaking because it doesn’t affect the flavour of milk (unlike chlorine sanitizers.) Just follow the instructions on the package and rinse well prior to use because sanitizers will also kill the good bacteria that you want to ferment.