I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching what is needed for cheesemaking, as well as where to buy the supplies for kosher cheesemaking, which is a lot more involved. So I thought I’d share it with you since if any of you are interested, it will save you hours of research. 🙂
Firstly, you need rennet. Most rennet are made from animal sources, but there are vegetarian sources of rennet. However, almost none of these are kosher. I finally found one source of certified kosher liquid rennet, Chr. Hansen in WI, but they sell only to large companies. The company I found that sells this particular rennet, Chymax Extra, was Kelley Supply. However, Kelley Supply only sells in industrial sizes, and though I found a company that buys large containers of this rennet from Kelley and repackages it for their customers, there’s no kosher supervision on the small containers that they send out. I called that company (New England Cheesemaking Supply) to speak to them in detail about their repackaging process, hoping that there would be some way we could use the repackaged smaller container of rennet. No luck – rennet has the status in kosher laws of not being nullified to the sixtieth (botel b’shishim), and because they also repackage animal rennets there, there’s no way to know that you’re getting something untainted. The only remaining solution that I could see was to order the smallest industrial container size available (enough for over 1000 gallons of milk), and hope that I could afterwards find others to buy some of the rennet from me.
The next thing is bacterial starters, mesophilic and thermophilic. I was really hoping this wouldn’t need kosher certification because I was already tired of the researching process, but no luck – it definitely does. After calling the OU to speak to them, I was given the source of the only OU certified starter products in the US – DSM Food Specialties. I wasn’t having fun trying to get hold of them – they are an extremely huge company, and as I called back for the I don’t know how many-eth time trying to get someone to speak to, I said to my kids, “This is why no one makes kosher cheese on their own; it’s just too hard to get the kashrus information and supplies.” BUT -I did more research, and found a source of OU certified bacterial starters, and the owner, Cathy Potter, with whom I spoke, was an absolute pleasure to deal with. http://www.dairyconnection.com/cultures.htm Not all of their starters are kosher, just those in the MM and MA line, marked EZAL – these come in packages each marked with OU certification.
I wanted to order both thermophilic and mesophilic starters, since different recipes call for different ingredients. I wouldn’t have known that there are two different thermophilic starters, from the TA and LH series, or what the purpose of them was. Fortunately Cathy isn’t a sales representative impatiently waiting for you to quickly tell them your order so they can get off the phone, and when she asked what kind of cheeses I wanted to make, she pointed me in the right direction and gave me helpful information. I ordered one of each – when making Italian cheeses, you use a mixture of both, in a ratio of 2 parts TA: 1 part LH. I was also told that The New England Cheesemaking Company sells these with kosher certification, but after my first conversation with them several months ago and a very unhelpful representative, I didn’t feel like calling back to go through more questions about the starters.
Citric acid – I was able to buy this in the regular supermarket, also labeled as sour salt. I happened to get mine by Liebers, but probably most spice companies carry this.
Calcium chloride – I was so happy to find something on the list that didn’t need kosher certification, and that was this. I’ll pick this up tomorrow at a small pharmacy near the post office.
Lipase powder – of course I didn’t realize that I needed this until after I did all of my other research. 🙂 This also needs kosher certification, and I believe that The Dairy Connection sells this also; I’m going to call first thing in the morning and check this. If they have it, I’ll ask them to tack it onto my order (I ordered the starters this afternoon and she told me would go out tomorrow so hopefully that will work). ***Update – I called them about this, and the certification on the lipase is a Tablet K, which we don’t use. I’m going to skip buying this – it doesn’t affect the consistency of the cheese, just the flavor.
Avivah
Hi, Avivah
What about starters and culture? Are they cholov Isroel? Cholov stam?
The starter cultures are going to be either dairy OK or OU STam. You can obtain CY Starter cultures from koshercurds.com
The Kosher certificate on their site is for Cholov Stam. Not Cholov Yisroel.
Neither – they are pareve. They are bacteria, not dairy based. Makes things simpler, doesn’t it? 🙂 Let me know how your cheesemaking goes!
All cheese cultures that you would buy from any of the distributors are not parve. They are OK or OU Dairy STAM. They are from a company in Italy and are repackaged from the dairy connection and then shippped white labled to the various retailors. If you are looking for chalav yisrael starters please contact me at david@davidsnaturals.com I also carry kosher parve rennet powder. This does not have to be in the fridge. Tnuva cheese mehadrin uses the CY cultures their non mehadrin uses stam cultures.
Hope that this helps
Dovid
Hi Aviva,
Are you sure that it is so complicated? Rebbetzin Kanievsky in Bnei Brak has been making cheese for Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita for years. I can’t imagine that she has that much trouble.
There is no simpler way?
People have been making cheese for centuries so I’m sure there are easier ways. If you research it and can share that with me, I’d be delighted to learn about it!
http://www.thecheesemaker.com has many cultures and starters certified by the OU. All are considered dairy.
I tried his rennets last year, and for some reason they weren’t as effective (?) as Dairy Connection’s. maybe it’s my milk, or maybe I got an off batch.
I’m so glad you shared this, Kerith!
Shalom Aviva
I’m in South Africa and trying to make chalav yisrael cheese and yoghurt.
I looked at the dairyconnection site and could only find OU dairy cultures. I’m looking for parev or chalav yisrael (C”Y) cultures. Do you know where I can get those? CHR Hansen in the States makes C”Y cultures for Pesach but not the ones I need. Surely someone in Israel must sell cultures for the C”Y market?
Hoping you can help
Rachel
Hi, Rachel, welcome! I’ve been living in Israel for just a few months, and have never made cheese here. I’m positive that there are cultures available here, since a few months ago I spoke with someone in an area where many people raise goats and make their own cheese, but don’t know anything about what they are or where to buy them. Sorry!
if you see this and want to know how to make yogurt from scratch, it’s so easy it’s laughable. buy some organic sweet red peppers with stems on, stems as long as possible. remove a fine slice fm the already open end of the stem, then chop the stem off the pepper. place 6-8 stems in about 1.5 cups of milk, warm till you see light bubbles forming around the edge of the pot, turn off the heat, wrap in a small blanket and let cool very slowly. open some hours later – anything from 5 to 8 depending on seasonal temperature, and voila, you have the culture. freeze some in batches of abt 1.5 tablespoons. What you want to do now is start using this to make yogurt, and each time, remove 2x 1.5 Tab and freeze. Each time you get to a few too many just take the old ones out and toss away. The only reason to freeze a couple is so you don’t need to redo the entire process should a batch go off and you’re left with nothing. Over some months, the quality of your yogurt [which is also you starter for the next batch] will improve consistently. I just dole some from a batch of yogurt currently being eaten right into the warmed milk of the next batch-in-the-making. Halav Yisrael yogurt starter prob solved, worldwide. Go for it, yogurt makers!
the website mentioned for mesophilic and thermophilic starters, DairyConnection.com also carries certified kosher rennet under the circle-k. This is the link to the certification on the circle-k webpage for the two kosher products in the rennet section of the webpage http://www.ok.org/kfgProducts.asp?ir=&V=Dairy+Connection, scroll down to “DCI PF 55” and “DCI Supreme Double Strength Coagulant” or “DCI Supreme Pint.” The “DCI PF 55” is marked dairy on the website but the circle-k webpage and certification say it is parve. I have not ordered these, I just found them myself today. This seems to be the best source of certified kosher rennet.
Hi Binyomin
Do you know of any parev or chalav yisrael cultures? in my experience I have only found kosher dairy(not C”Y) cultures and most non animal rennet is parev.
Hi Aviva,
Where can I get Kosher for Pesach starter and Rennet? Thanks.
Frimet
make it. see my comment a little above.
I’ve used Dairy Connection rennet for years, and they recently got a hechsher on their small bottles. Before that I had to buy the giant ones and share with friends! I’ve tried other companies too, but DC is consistently the best.
Is there somewhere wher I can get cholov yisroel cultures I have been looking everywhere and can’t seem to come up with any answers
Hi Avivah,
This looks like a fantastic business opportunity! I found your site because I wanted to make kosher cheese with my daughter, but I’m not going to go through this much effort! If you packaged the needed supplies along with some recipes you could easily sell this online. Maybe partner with a restaurant or onlne kosher store. I think that it could make $ as well as be a public service. DIY kits make a lot of money.
Lisa
Hello, Aviva-
I am also hoping to make cheese with my daughter. I would love to start with mozzarella. And would definitely purchase a supply package from you as well!
Thanks for the encouragement but this isn’t a project I’m taking on at this time! Enjoy cheesemaking with your daughter!
I will be giving a Ricotta and Mozzarella workshop in English in the next few weeks. If you are looking for kosher cheese making supplies you can try Hila at home-cheese.com the site is in Hebrew though.
Good Luck
Thank you for this information, Dovid.
Hila is no longer in business. I will be buying the rest of her stock. If there are itmes that you are looking for please contact me david@davidsnaturals.com. Regarding the cultures that you were receiving from dairy connection. They were not chalav yisroel if that means something to you. I have the current certifications for most of the cultures that they carry. they are are OK Chalav Stam. I will be offering CY cultures within a few weeks. Please watch my website as I am updating that information.
the easiest way to make cheese without rennet.
bring
1 gallon of milk to to 180° F
put in
3 oz of lemon juice
mix well
let it cool off
strain trough a clean handkerchief
the longer you leave it in the strainer, the drier it will be
add
2 tsp of salt
and
enjoy
Sounds good, Dave – thanks for sharing!
You can go this direction as well.
1 tsp citric acid
1tsp salt
4 liters of milk
Put CA and Salt in pot
Add Milk
Heat milk to 195
When curds seperate take of heat
put cover on pot
let stand 20 minutes
laddle into cheese cloth and drain 30 min
Enjoy
100% Kosher Cheese Making Supplies can be obtained from koshercurds.com
Hello:
There are a number of comments here which are a little confusing or misleading. I will, over time, try to correct them. I will also try to offer a number of solutions to make this process easier:
1) I have been using New England Cheesemaking for the last 3 years, despite living in Australia. Whilst we have a very decent supplier here (Cheeselinks), I purchase a number of things when family comes over simply due to the savings. I have found them to be fantastic help, never in a rush, and very knowledgeable. Being indecisive as I am, they have often repacked my orders when I needed another gizmo added in.
2)The comment regarding the rennet mixing is incorrect. Rennet is something that easily denatures. By that I mean it dies off even 1/2 hour after adding a foreign fluid such as water. The equipment used to repackage is kept spotless and no tainting of the two rennets (kosher and otherwise) can occur. There is no issue with having it repacked. I know that some may wish to be super careful, and that is fine, however in this case, it is unnecessary.
3) There are a number of substitutes for starters and ingredients. For example, those who wish to make a Roquefort can do so with mold taken from an existing cheese (Ie if you liked a blue vein from the store and wish to replicate it somewhat), it can be grown on sour dough bread (the good stuff, not the rubbish supermarket type) naturally, butter milk for some types, etc. Rennet can be made from thistles if you are so inclined, as is done for many of the Spanish cheeses, giving a slightly peppery note. Refer to http://www.culturesforhealth.com/make-thistle-rennet-cheesemaking/ and http://makingoursustainablelife.com/vegetable-rennet. There are many options. As far as starters go, call the mashgiach you trust and ask them what is kosher etc.
You have made an incorrect statement regarding OU certified starters. DANISCO has many, if not most, starters hechshered by OU. They come in very reasonable sized packs that can be kept in the freezer for in excess of two years. Look at http://www.getculture.com/MA-11.html for a good example. These cultures are available throughout the world thanks to Danisco being perhaps the biggest manufacturer in the world.
4) Cholov yisroel milk powder from New Zealand is not actually cholov yisroel. After investigating the product, irrespective of what the governing Kashrut body says, it is in no way cholov yisroel. The mashgichim supervising the milking have not been able to attend all the farms during the period in which the dairies milk the cows. I myself do not eat cholov yisroel however for those that do, you should be aware. It is used to thicken yoghurt amongst other things.
5) Citric Acid: I do not know what OU’s stance is on this but most of the citric acid sold in Australia is considered not kosher but the local governing kashrut authority. They often make decisions based on their own ‘shticks’ as opposed to the actual laws so you may be right in using whatever you can get your hands on. Here it is very political (insanely so).
Cheers.
R
Great information R.
Just a few things I feel need to be addressed. First cheesemaking.com is GREAT. I have been working with them for over 9 years. The issue regarding rennet once again is since there is no supervision you have no idea what you are getting. You might think that you are getting veg rennet (enzyme) but instead got calf rennet. Who knows. the site clearly states that:
Liquid Vegetable Rennet
NOTE: We purchase this product Certified Kosher OU in bulk. The product is then repackaged into smaller quantities without Kosher supervision, thus voiding the Kosher certification. We are not, nor do we make any representation to be, under kosher certification. They say OU, but certification says OK (that is the correct one) but if you look at the date of the certification that they show online you will see that it expired in 2011.
Dansco starters are wonderful from what I have heard (CHOOZIT). I don’t use them as they are CS. Sacco carries both CY (500 to 1000 liters only) and CS starters 100 liters.
Once again if you look at the cheesemaking.com website and look at the certificate for the Mesophilic starter large pack you will see that the certificaton expired in 2010.
Here is Israel the Rav of Tnuva does not allow chalav akum (he doesn’t hold by the heter of chalav stam for many other reasons) in the Mehadrin line of products. They are used in their regular kosher items though.
Regarding their 5 packs they are run at the same time as the large packs so they are chalav stam, but they do not have hechsher. Nobody would no this unless they were to call and speak with the office manager.
Cheese wax once again the disclaimer made by cheesemaking.com
NOTE: We purchase this product Certified Kosher (Tablet-K) in bulk. The product is then repackaged into smaller quantities without Kosher supervision, thus voiding the Kosher certification. We are not, nor do we make any representation to be, under kosher certification.
Look at the certification for the bulk once again this was written in 2010
Citric acid has the same disclaimer
NOTE: We purchase this product Certified Kosher OU in bulk. The product is then repackaged into smaller quantities without Kosher supervision, thus voiding the Kosher certification. We are not, nor do we make any representation to be, under kosher certification.
This also expired in 2011.
The main problem when buying kosher products from a non-kosher (or non-Jewish for that matter) establishment is you just don’t know what you are getting at the end of the day.
As you can see, the majority of ingredients that are sold online are purchased in bulk with a hechsher. They are broken down without supervision. Does this make the said product not kosher? No, it just means that you might get something else instead.
Steve of the thecheesemaker.com does have Rav Twerski of kosherwisconsin.com put a hechsher on some of the items that are broken down. The certificate below will expire on Jan 8th, 2015
Hope this helps some readers
Thank you for this amazing blog. I was pointed to it by a friend. I had recently spent hours on the phone with cheesemaker, and while they gentleman there was very nice and helpful, and his products are kosher when he gets them, once they repackage them, they lose their status.
I am glad to know that there are some good kosher sources. I look forward to making some amazing cheeses now (I’m not ambitious or anything….) Maybe even some really good aged stuff for the 9 days next year.
What I really don’t understand is…how did our ancestors, even as recently as pre-holocaust Europe, make and eat kosher cheese? Where did they get the starter cultures and rennet from?
Chymax Extra Chymosin Coagulant 1 Gal
MFG Part 73812 – is this the kosher rennet I buy from Kelly supply?
Chymax Extra Chymosin Coagulant 1 Gal
MFG Part 73812. This item is certified kosher Chr Hansen is the manufactuer if in original container. If broken out you will need hashchacha. in the US: http://www.thecheesemaker.com carries enzyme with hashchacha from Rav Twerski. In Israel koshercurds.com has maxiren liquid rennet and mayason rennet powder.
1. Having gone into discussions with the main Kashrut in Australia (KA), I have been informed that by adding a starter regular non- CY starter to CY milk and then leaving it for 24 hours, taking a spoon and adding it again to CY milk for 24 hours, the starter will then be considered CY. I do not understand the effects of this method, nor the religious basis for it, it is something to consider. KA is known to be machmir on everything.
2. I appreciate that products broken down can be an issue however there are some products that the likelihood of ‘cutting it’ with anything is negligible. Cheese wax? Seriously? With what? Pig fat? As with plastic bags, wax is not considered to be in any way a food product and CANNOT be considered kosher or not kosher. The best example of this was an explanation that you could take a salad, sprinkle on it the hair of a pig and eat it. Why? Because as hair is not considered a food, it cannot have the status of being non- kosher. What could rennet be mixed with? animal rennet? Vegetable rennet is cheaper and more easily obtained. It is not something done intentionally and a mashgiach will never be around for the repackaging process anyway.
I spoke with Cheesemaking.com about the certifications and they do have current certifications.
3. There are many ways to make your own starters. Thistle flowers are easy to use, but even easier are things like butter milk (hardly complicated to find in Israel), and moulds from existing purchased cheeses (blue moulds and ‘geotricium candidum’, which is the white camembert mould that form naturally on soft goat cheeses). There are many options. You can even use the white sap from the broken branch of a fig tree. No actual need for store bought stuff, but more variable on quality.
If worried, just buy a commercial pack and split it between yourselves. You end up with a great deal more for very little cash.
I need someone to teach me how to make hard and soft cheeses on a small commercial scale for a kosher organic dairy in upstate n.y. And it has to be chalav and gvinah yisroel
BS”D
Shalom Mo,
Please contact me at david@koshercurds.com I would very much like to hear about your project.
Shabbat Shalom
Dovid
Baruch Hashem, I can answer at least one of your questions with a little more satisfaction than you’ve gotten so far. GetCulture.com has vegetarian, OK-certified rennet, as well as several other kosher cheesemaking products. Their cheese color, all of their cultures, and many of their other products are certified through OK. Best of all, the rennet comes in small amounts. You could totally use up a 2oz bottle in a year’s time; if you don’t, you can still use the rennet, it just loses strength so you’d need to use more of it. I wish I could help the commenter above who wants kasher l’Pesach rennet, but I’ve been unable to locate any in small, home-cheesemaker amounts. The ingredients themselves of the certified rennets are KLP, but they’re processed in facilities that also process chametz, and there can be cross-contamination. But YAY, I love finding other Jews who are also making cheese!
Oh, and also, GetCulture.com is the same company as DairyConnection.com, but they sell specifically to people making smaller batches at home, while Dairy Connection is pretty much totally for industrial makers. Both GetCulture.com and also TheCheesemaker.com sell OU-certified starter cultures in batches small enough for the home cheesemaker. However, one may find it unnecessary to use rennet.
Though you use much more acid than rennet (vinegar, lemon juice, citric acid), you CAN coagulate milk with acid. When you drain your curds, the whey and the acid both drain away for the most part. If you don’t care for the flavor of the acid, just give it a rinse in cool distilled water and that will take away any residual sourness. Personally I like the very faint flavor of lemon, so I usually leave it in. Citric acid is sold as sour salt in regular grocery stores, but it’s actually far cheaper to buy it from a cheesemaking supply company like GetCulture.com. The economy of bulk, basically. If it’s too much for you to use, give gifts of cheesemaking supplies including some citric acid, at gift giving occasions. People love it, I’ve found.
Basically all online cheese companies will carry either OU or OK Chalav Stam Cheese Cultures. The only online site for Chalav Yisrael (and kosher for pesach) cheese cultures is http://koshercurds.com. Rennet with a hechsher for the breakout can be obtained by http://thecheesemaker.com. Rav Twerski from Wisconsin oversees the procedure.
Hello ! I am from Brazil and i am looking to buy RENNET Kosher Passover i need only 500ml – I know the name is Maxiren from DSM. where to buy.
Hi,
I just read all of these comments, if you have no luck finding KLP rennet, it looks like you can make it from thistles or sap of fig tree.
Enjoy and good luck!
E