Wooden Cheese Press For Cheese Making 16 In Natural Oak 18 mm Thick - Cheese Making Kit With Wooden Cheese Press and 2 Cheese Molds 1/2 Gal, Cheesecloth, Springs and Measuring Scale Included

I needed a good cheese press to take my cheese making to a higher level. It was easy to assemble and even easier to use. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, which was essential in my tiny house. The weight gauge is only effective on the higher amounts. If you’re making a cheese that requires lower weights, you’ll have to either 1: guess, or 2: use hand weights for a bit more accuracy. When I’m making a farm house cheddar, for example, I put the cheese in the mold and then put 10lb weights on top of the press, then tighten the wing nuts. Seems to work well.The construction is solid and it has held up well. I put mine in a baking sheet to catch the whey runoff. This press is also quite simple to clean. For the money, this has been a great find.

This works great, just what I needed.

Works very well. The pressure gauge is very helpful.

Not easy to turn those butterfly nuts but it is very sturdy and does the job.

I saw good reviews and a great price compared to all the options online that cost much more. It was not until I returned to process a claim that I noticed everyone who reviewed it had been given a free one.Bad news: the springs are all different sizes. They can not give an exact measured pressure like the gauge says when you might use different size springs that start applying pressure at different heights. I tried to just get new springs but I had to process a return for the whole item just to get new springs. The new springs were not uniform either.More unpleasantry: I found that when using all four springs, by the time you get to the second bump of the measuring stick, it is only about 5 pounds pressure off, I did this by putting dumbells on it of certain weights but could only measure to the 110 pound mark, and I ran out of things to put on it. When using two springs, they were only able to hold up about half of what the measuring stick markings say.Good news: You can calibrate the measuring stick using dumbells [or cases of vegetables or whatever, weigh it on a scale, then put it on the press to see how much it holds to hit the markers]With two springs, well, I had two sets of measures using my shortest two and longest two springs. The short springs hit the measures at 15, 25, 45, 80, 100 [not 30, 60, 90, 115, 140]. Using my two longest springs, I hit the markers at 20, 40, 50, 75, 110 [not 30, 60, 90, 115, 140].Once pressure was applied, with four springs each full revolution of the wing nuts added pretty close to 10 pounds. With two springs about 3.5 rotations gave 20 pounds.All that said, the measures are off but it did the job.Oh! and it is not 'set it and forget it' ... when you get to the 40 pound or so pressure, the whey starts losing moisture and then it can get lopsided quickly, so you need to watch it for an hour or so after each adjustment. This is more a nature of the product than a defect.I enjoyed using it, just wish it worked more as designed

buena herramienta, fácil de usar para prensar, proteger la madera con una bandeja para que no se deteriore

I'm from Wisconsin ("America's Dairyland" is on our vehicle license plates) so cheese has always been a major factor in my life. I was too intimidated to try making my own until I saw this cheese press. It's sturdy, simple, very well made, and easy to use even for a total novice. I've included comments from this novices point of view, which I hope will encourage my fellow novices and give a chuckle or two to people who know what they're doing.My first and strongest impression was how strong and durable this press is. I'm elderly and expect to be passing this press on someday, it's going to outlast me by decades.I'm actually giving this 4.5 stars because the assembly instructions for the kit are for a different style of cheese press. If the press itself wasn't of such excellent quality, I would have taken off a full star. The video instructions help but left me unsure of where the washers went. So, from top to bottom, here's the order of the pieces:Cover nutWing nutWasherThin boardWasherSpringWasherThick boardNut (tightened to the board below it)Thick boardCover nutIt's assembled from the bottom up. Once I figured out the order of the pieces, the press took me less than 10 minutes to assemble, and I was going slowly. Once assembled, the middle board can be moved up and down so you can insert your cheese forms after assembling the press, then tighten the wing nuts to the desired pressure. Another way to look at the assembly is that the top (thin) board and middle (thick) board, and the spring and wing nut, will be moving as your cheese gets squished. The washers go below the wing nut and at either end of the spring to give those pieces extra protection from the wear of that movement.As a total novice, I had no ingredients or recipe and didn't want to invest much money in them in case I didn't enjoy cheesemaking, so I made farmer's cheese with whole milk and lemon juice. It took me 3 gallons of milk and 1.5 cups of lemon juice (made in two batches) to fill both forms with curds. Farmer's cheese is also called cottage cheese, small soft curds that fall apart easily. After several hours of pressing, I ended up with a semi-soft cheese about the squishiness of muenster, but crumblier. I can cut it into slices and spread those slices a bit; if I had pressed it less, it would be more spreadable.Easy starter recipe:1 gallon whole milk plus a pinch of salt. Heat slowly to about 190 F/90 C, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Stir in lemon juice, let sit for 10-15 minutes to allow curds to form. Remove curds with slotted spoon or strainer. I then strained the liquid through a wire mesh strainer and got about 1/3 more curds. If the leftover whey looks milky, reheat and add more lemon. The empty gallon jug is great for storing the whey for later use. I got about 1/2 curds and 1/2 whey from this recipe. The top plunger on the cheese form will press it down about 1.5 inches/4 cm from the top of the form, so I used enough milk to fill the forms almost to the top with loose drained curds before pressing.The plunger doesn't fit tightly within the form, so I could put cheesecloth in the bottom and coming up the sides to the top, then add curds. With two layers of the included cheesecloth, a few curds came out at the top around the plunger's edges. With four layers, much less came out. (I call one thin webby layer a "layer" of cheesecloth, totally unfolded.)I had a delightful time making my first two rounds of "easy cheese," and will be getting rennet and cultures to make more kinds! I highly recommend this press to novice makers, and I think experienced makers will find it a good buy too.

Very cumbersome to use just meh