from Hacker News

Show HN: Tool to calculate how much milk is needed to make an amount of cheese

by hgarg on 1/8/24, 7:40 AM with 75 comments

• by nomilk on 1/10/24, 4:09 AM

  Simple tools like this are not to be underestimated. This random egg boil time calculator is solely responsible for me having perfectly boiled eggs the past few years: https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/eggs

  (the main three variables that dramatically alter boil time are soft vs hard boiled, starting temp [e.g. refrigerated vs room temp], and egg weight)

• by saurabhchalke on 1/11/24, 5:07 PM

  This is the script used for the underlying calculation:

  // script.js

  // Yield factors for each cheese type

  const baseYieldFactors = { "cheddar": 0.10, "mozzarella": 0.20, "parmesan": 0.09, "gouda": 0.12, "brie": 0.15, "camembert": 0.15, "blue cheese": 0.13, "feta": 0.17, "ricotta": 0.20, "monterey jack": 0.10, "swiss": 0.10, "colby": 0.10, "provolone": 0.10, "cottage cheese": 0.18, "cream cheese": 0.20 };

  // Milk type factors

  const milkTypeFactors = { "cow": 1.0, "goat": 0.9, "sheep": 1.1, "buffalo": 1.2, "camel": 0.8, "mare": 0.7, "reindeer": 1.15, "yak": 1.10, "donkey": 0.75 };

  // Calculate milk volume based on cheese type, milk type, and desired weight

  var baseYield = baseYieldFactors[cheeseType]; var milkAdjustment = milkTypeFactors[milkType]; var adjustedYield = baseYield * milkAdjustment;

  // Calculate milk volume range

  var minMilkVolume = weight / (adjustedYield * 1.1); var maxMilkVolume = weight / (adjustedYield * 0.9);

• by DoreenMichele on 1/10/24, 7:25 AM

  Does anyone know of any online sites with simple recipes or instructions for some basic cheeses?

  I have heard ricotta can be made by just adding lemon or vinegar to milk. It's basically curds.

  Ricotta in Germany was completely different from what I have found in the US and I have long wondered if I could make ricotta I would actually eat.

• by WiseWeasel on 1/10/24, 4:31 AM

  Very handy tool!

  An improvement might be to make milk type the first choice, and limit the cheese options based on milk type selection. Or maybe just combine both into a single selection with milk type option groups.

• by azepoi on 1/10/24, 10:02 AM

  Most hard pressed cheeses (think comté, beaufort, gruyère, gouda) are around 10L/kg, Parmigiano reggiano is more like 15L/kg, so I think the app underestimate it, unless by Parmesan you mean not the real deal

  Obviously dryer cheeses are more dense and require more milk per kg as they age

  The cheese choice is severly lacking :) The milk type choice is nice, as Cow's milk contains more water compared to goat or sheep's

• by underlines on 1/10/24, 10:55 AM

  Swiss here who worked in the national dairy laboratory before switching into IT.

  What does this calculator mean by the cheese type "Swiss"?

• by mstngl on 1/10/24, 8:57 AM

  I would like to see the calculation for sour milk / Acid-set cheese, especially German variety Harzer. Among countless kinds of cheese, despite strongly polarizing due to its taste and smell, it has some "super food" features: Harzer contains very little fat (less than 1%) but extremely high protein (usually around 30%).

• by ggambetta on 1/10/24, 9:07 AM

  Super useful website! One of my dreams / unrealized projects is to make my own wheel of parmesan. One day...

  But I take offense at "Swiss cheese"... are we talking Gruyere? Emmental? Appenzeller? Raclette? Tilsiter? Sbrinz? Or one of the many other delicious cheeses we have in Switzerland?

• by eviks on 1/10/24, 5:02 AM

  A simple table with instant calculation defaulting to the output of 1 would be better for the curious

• by stevage on 1/10/24, 10:24 AM

  Pro tip for anyone ever making an app like this. Ditch the calculate button, and update the calculation everytime any input changes.

• by coldtrait on 1/10/24, 5:20 AM

  It's missing my milk of choice, pig milk.

• by huhtenberg on 1/10/24, 6:28 PM

  Add paneer as an option? Arguably the simplest cheese to make of them all.

• by RonnieOwnsLexus on 1/10/24, 7:31 AM

  you can add 1 more type which is quite popular in Indian Subcontinent. Panner

• by katzenversteher on 1/10/24, 7:31 AM

  Would be nice to adapt it for tofu as well. It's a similar process.

• by qingcharles on 1/10/24, 6:35 AM

  Off-topic, but this is the first .ing site I've seen in the wild...

• by hanniabu on 1/10/24, 5:32 PM

  I love simple tools like this.

  Now all it needs is some cheese recipes.

• by 0xEF on 1/10/24, 10:47 AM

  Brb, about to go make 100kg of Donkey Chedder

• by moose44 on 1/10/24, 5:21 PM

  Anyone know one for butter?

• by luxuryballs on 1/10/24, 3:08 PM

  which one of these is closest to human milk? or maybe you can add that

• by LanzVonL on 1/10/24, 2:49 AM

  I'd like to try it but it's blocked in my region.

• by lloydatkinson on 1/10/24, 3:04 AM

  It doesn’t contain the calculation for Red Leicester.

• by bruce511 on 1/10/24, 3:16 AM

  Some years ago, I decided to make cheese as a hobby. Got a starter kit, bought an extra fridge and so on.

  Turns out making cheese is -really- easy. Milk, rennet, culture, time.

  Making -specific kind of cheese- though is hard. Recipes are very precise (so you need things like good pH measurers).

  The biggest problem for me was the waiting time. I'm into software - fix, recompile, run, repeat. Whereas 'leave for 3 months, 6 months, a year, and see if you got it right' was too slow of a feedback loop.

  These days I only make soft-cheeses, take a week or less, and only in tiny batches (and irregularly).

  Overall learning the process was fun, and a cool thing to do, but if you want good cheese, well, find a good cheese store :)

• by ape4 on 1/10/24, 3:54 PM

  If you don't enter a weight says NaN but that's kind of bread ;)