🧑🍳 Cheesemaker
A craftsperson who curdles, shapes, salts and ripens cheese; according to FAO, 100 L of milk yields about 11 kg of Gouda-type cheese.
A cheesemaker is a craftsperson who turns milk into cheese: curdling it, separating the whey, shaping and pressing the cheese, salting it and tending it as it ripens. In the ISCO-08 classification, cheesemakers belong to group 7513, “Dairy-products makers”, together with those who make butter and cream.
Step by step. According to ISCO-08, a cheesemaker pasteurises or boils the milk, adds a starter culture, curdles it, heats the curd to the right firmness, drains it and fills moulds for pressing. The cheese is then salted, some varieties are coated with a mould solution, and the wheels are shelved and turned as they ripen. The cheesemaker also checks quality and logs ingredients and the length of each stage.
The Codex Alimentarius standard defines cheese as a product obtained by coagulating milk protein with rennet or another suitable coagulant and partly draining off the whey. Fresh cheese is ready almost at once, while ripened cheese has to mature for a set time at a set temperature. According to FAO, 100 L of milk yields about 11 kg of Gouda-type cheese.
The craft is very old. On ceramic sieves from northern Europe dating to the 6th millennium BC, researchers found milk fat residues — direct evidence that curd was already being separated from whey. In the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food processing workers, cheesemakers included, had a median pay of $41,230 a year in 2025.
Why it matters to you. The cheesemaker determines the flavour, texture and aroma of cheese, and the choice of enzyme determines what appears in the ingredient list. Not every cheese is made with calf rennet: the Codex allows other coagulants, and US law separately names chymosin produced by microbial fermentation. If this matters to you, check the label for the enzyme used.
Facts
| Main use | Making cheese, butter and cream (ISCO-08 7513) 1 |
|---|---|
| Yield | ≈ 11 kg of Gouda-type cheese from 100 L of milk 4 |
| Duration | Cheesemaking known since the 6th millennium BC 5 |
How it connects to milk
🧑🍳 Cheesemaker → works with → 🧀 Cheese → made from → 🥛 Milk
How it connects to Cheese
🧑🍳 Cheesemaker → works with → 🧀 Cheese
Links
- Made from
- 🧀 Gouda, 🧀 Whey
- Where they work
- 🏭 Cheese dairy
- Works with
- 🧀 Cheese, 🧀 Cheddar, 🧫 Rennet, 🧀 Gouda, 🧀 Camembert, 🏷️ Protected cheese names
- Who this is
- 🧑 Human
- Part of
- 🏭 Dairy plant jobs, 🔄 How cheese is made
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Cellar master
- In other topics
- 🍷 Winemaker
Frequently asked questions
What does a cheesemaker do?
Curdles milk, cuts and heats the curd, shapes and presses the cheese, salts it and tends it while it ripens (ISCO-08, group 7513).
Is it true that all cheeses are made with calf rennet?
No. The Codex allows “rennet or other suitable coagulating agents”, and US law separately names chymosin produced by microbial fermentation.
How much milk goes into cheese?
It depends on the variety. According to FAO, 100 L of milk yields about 11 kg of Gouda-type cheese — roughly 9 L per kilogram.
Since when have people made cheese?
Since at least the 6th millennium BC: residues of milk fat were found on ceramic sieves from northern Europe.
How is fresh cheese different from ripened cheese?
Under the Codex standard, fresh cheese is ready almost immediately after making, while ripened cheese has to mature for a set time at a set temperature.
What to read next
- 🏭 Cheese dairy — A workshop or plant where milk is coagulated and cheese pressed and ripened; the world made 27.3 million t of cheese in 2023 (FAO).
- 🧀 Cheddar — A hard aged cow's milk cheese from Somerset; the word is free to use, but West Country Farmhouse Cheddar and Orkney Scottish Island Cheddar are protected.
- 🍷 Cellar master — A cellar master (maître de chai) runs a winery cellar from the arrival of the grapes to bottling, overseeing fermentation, ageing and blends.
- 🏷️ Protected cheese names — Cheeses whose names are protected in the EU as PDO or PGI: made only in their region to an approved specification; the eAmbrosia register lists over 270.
- 🧑 Human — Also a mammal; the only species that milks other animals itself and drinks their milk throughout life.
Similar
🧑🔬 Laboratory technician · 🧑🔧 Maintenance engineer · 🧑🔬 Dairy technologist
Sources
- ILO. International Standard Classification of Occupations ISCO-08, Vol. 1 (2012)
- Codex Alimentarius. General Standard for Cheese CXS 283-1978
- US BLS. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Food and Tobacco Processing Workers
- FAO. Village milk processing (T0045E)
- Salque M. et al. Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe. Nature 493:522–525, 2013
- US 21 CFR 184.1685 — Rennet (animal-derived) and chymosin preparation (fermentation-derived)