If you are just getting into making your own cheese at home, picking the best cheese making kit to start with can be difficult as there are a lot of them on the market. Fortunately making your own cheese at home is very easy and there are some fantastic kits on the market so let’s take a look at a few.
I should note that also some of the kits advertise themselves as complete, most also note that they do not come with the milk and/or cream needed to make the cheese. No kits do, it would not be practical to ship you fresh milk or cream. You can almost always use whatever milk you can get including standard pasteurized store milk, or something a little different such as fresh goat milk, with virtually any cheese making kit.
Every kit on my list of the best cheese making kit can use standard store milk.
Standing Stone Farms is a popular manufacturer of some of the best cheese making kit around so it should be no surprise we start with their Standing Stone Farms Basic Beginner Cheese Making Kit. This ingredients kit can make up to 20 gallons worth (25-30lbs) of Mozzarella, Chevre, Goat Cheese, Queso Blanco, Queso Fresco, Mascarpone, and Ricotta. It even includes the curd drain bag. This is the perfect place to start if you want to try making cheese at home.
You will need a few things at home, mainly a thermometer and a pot, it would also help to have some kind of strainer and a large spoon or ladle. Pretty much standard equipment in any well-appointed kitchen. If you don’t have these items, look a little down and they make an excellent kit that includes absolutely everything but the milk and cream!
You will find several Standing Stone Farms kits on this list because they tend to be some of the highest quality kits that don’t skimp on the little things. One example is the tablet rennet some kits use which you have to figure out how to dissolve and split up and divide among your batches. Standing Stone Farms ships with a liquid rennet ready to go.
The Standing Stone Farms Ultimate Cheese Making Kit is their basic kit above with the addition of culture, lipase, and an instant-read thermometer. The additions allow you to make different cheeses and control your temperatures better so your cheese turns out better. With this kit you can easily make Mozzarella, Burrata, Ricotta, Monterey Jack, Feta, Chèvre (Goat Cheese), Cheese Curds, Cream Cheese, Butter, Cultured Butter, Queso Blanco, Queso Fresca, and Marscapone.
This is my personal favorite on the best cheese making kit list, and will make between 25 and 30 pounds of fresh cheese.
Next up is The Ultimate Cheese Making Kit by The Big Cheese Making Kit which is probably the highest quality ingredients kit in the best cheese making kit list. This box not only includes the ingredients to make Mozzarella, Ricotta, Mascarpone, Cypriot Style Cheese, Greek Style Cheese, Scottish Crowdie, Labner, Goat’s Cheese, Queso Blanco, and Paneer, but spices to flavor them!
More than just an ingredients kit, this includes three cheese molds, a dairy thermometer, and the best recipe book of the bunch. For just a few dollars more than the kit above, it really does include a lot more value. No wonder it is the best selling kit in the UK!
I wanted to include one complete, and I mean complete, best cheese making kit on my list and that is the Standing Stone Farms Complete Cheese Making Kit. This is basically their ultimate kit on the list a little further up, with the addition of the pot, strainer, skimmer spoon, and measuring spoons.
While the hardware that is included with this kit is not something you would find in the home of a professional chef, it is more than adequate for what it was designed to do and should keep you making cheese with it for many years to come. It really is a great value.
If you need the best chesse making kit for someone who has nothing, or you are not sure what they have and want to make sure they have everything they need, then this is the best cheese making kit for them.
My last selection for best cheese making kit is the Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheese Making Kit by New England Cheesemaking Supply While this kit is limited to two cheeses; Mozzarella and Ricotta, it is a very nicely done kit and is very easy and fun. It includes enough ingredients to make about 30 lbs of cheese in 1lb batches.
This may seem a little strange but I actually like this last kit for a group party night. Get a bunch of people together for a fun evening and start off with making cheese, then move to party games or whatever and later in the evening, you have cheese to go with your dinner! This kit really makes it fun.
Conclusions
I would say that the Standing Stone Farms Ultimate kit is my favorite and the one I gift the most. Virtually everyone I think of that I want to send a kit to has a well-stocked kitchen so the hardware isn’t an issue. If they are someone who really tends to try new things and you are afraid they may have made some cheese at home before, try The Ultimate Cheese Making Kit because it has some cheeses that are not typically found in kits here in the US, and some seasonings which I think is amazing.
If you are gifting for a student or young couple, you might want to consider the Standing Stone Farms Complete Cheese Making Kit that included not only the ingredients but also all of the hardware such as pots and measuring spoons. This will make sure that as long as they can find some milk and cream, they have absolutely everything they need.
Lastly. if you are looking for pure fun, go with the Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheese Making Kit.
I hope you enjoyed my article on the best cheese making kit you can get!
