Though people have been making cheese at home for millennia, the rules changed with pasteurization. You can make aged cheese with pasteurized or raw milk. For commercial cheesemakers in the U.S., cheese cannot be made with raw milk unless it’s going to age for at least 60 days. That is recommended for home cheesemakers as well, although many goat owners make aged and fresh cheese with raw milk. Raw milk contains numerous beneficial bacteria that adds to the character and nutrition level of the cheese, but it also requires some special handling and some modification to your recipes in terms of the amount of culture added to the milk.

Download our guide Getting Started Making Hard Cheese and we’ll cover the following:

+ Understanding Cultures Used for Making Cheese at Home

+ How to Make Cheese Curds for Hard Cheese

+ A DIY Homemade Cheese Press Plan

+ 7 Great Ways to Age Your Cheeses

+ And much more!