Where else but at our company (New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.) can you buy a press for $4.95? Yes, it’s true that you have to make it yourself, but we’ve done the hard part for you!
Our Off the Wall Cheese Press Plans (OWP) is one of our oldest and most enduring products. We’ve been selling it for over 30 years! It’s very popular, and our explanation is that many people who make cheese are “dyed in the wool” do-it-yourselfers.
The beauty of this press:
- It hangs on the wall, so it doesn’t take up counter space.
- Because it is attached to the wall, you don’t have to worry about it tipping over when you apply a lot of weight (which can happen with lever-style presses).
- You can use any of our molds with it – (in other words, it is not limited to a certain sized mold).
- It tells you the amount of pressure you are using, which many presses do not.
- It is easy to take the arm off the wall when you aren’t using it.
- You can customize it because, in the end, it is your own creation.
Speaking about customization, one of our cheese making do-it-yourselfers, Bob Dye, adapted his off the wall press to make it free standing. He told us he thought the main advantage was that our press has a scale for the different applied weights:
The scale is the black and white sticker on the arm.
“I ordered the plans and made it to be free-standing – the pivot for the bar is the same height as it would be if attached to a wall.
I made the counter part/frame, long enough so that it would support the to-be-pressed cheese at any needed distance and, unlike the one in the plans, I made the base/cheese support to have a groove so that it could be slid along the frame to any place where it was needed for the correct pressure.
It was made of scrap maple/oak and I’ve used it primarily for tofu but also made my first batch of blue cheese.
I just thought it was a simple project for anyone with basic skills – except for the grooves in the base for drainage.”
If you’ve modified our press plans, please send pictures to info@cheesemaking.com and we will add them to this article.
