Fromage 🧀

Fromage is a complete cheesemaking mod for Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.1, available for both Fabric and NeoForge.

Milk cows, goats, and sheep; bottle and sour milk; prepare cultures; control the temperature of a Cheese Vat; cut and process curds; press them into molds; and age your cheeses on a two-shelf aging rack.

Fromage currently includes 18 different cheeses, optional JEI integration, detailed placeable cheese models, and hands-on mechanics for eating and slicing finished cheeses.

Edam-making process

(These images only illustrate the recipe stages rather than the exact in-game crafting interfaces)

Features

• Cow, goat, and sheep milk
• Milk cauldrons that fill three Milk Bottles
• Milk Bottles that turn sour after one Minecraft day
• Fresh, Mesophilic, Thermophilic, and Blue Mold cultures
• Cultures that can be multiplied using Sour Milk
• Multiple ways to produce Rennet, including brewing Calf Stomachs
• A Cheese Vat with low, medium, and high heat recipes
• Large, Medium, and Small Curds
• Small and wheel-sized cheese presses
• Drain, Light, and Heavy pressing modes
• Cheese washing, stretching, cooking, cheddaring, piercing, waxing, and aging
• Whey processing for Ricotta and Brunost
• A two-shelf aging rack with persistent aging progress
• Placeable cheeses that can be eaten one portion at a time
• In-world cheese slicing with tagged knives
• Detailed portion-by-portion cheese models and matching directional hitboxes
• Optional JEI integration
• Equal gameplay and content support on Fabric and NeoForge

Cheeses

Fromage adds 18 cheeses:

• Fresh Cheese
• Brie
• Camembert
• Gouda
• Edam
• Cheddar
• Mozzarella
• Parmesan
• Blue Cheese
• Goat Cheese
• Goat Feta
• Herbed Goat Cheese
• Feta
• Pecorino
• Sheep Blue Cheese
• Manchego
• Ricotta
• Brunost

Each cheese uses a different combination of milk, culture, vat temperature, curd size, additive, pressing mode, processing step, and aging time.

For example:

• Gouda and Edam require washed curds.
• Mozzarella curds must be stretched before draining.
• Parmesan and Pecorino use cooked curds.
• Cheddar curds must be cheddared after draining.
• Blue cheese wheels must be pierced before aging.
• Edam must be waxed before it can age.
• Ricotta and Brunost are produced by processing Whey rather than following the normal milk-and-rennet path.

Basic cheesemaking

A normal cheese batch follows these steps:

1. Add milk and the required culture to the Cheese Vat.
2. Place the correct heat source directly below the vat.
3. Add Rennet.
4. Cut the curds with the Curd Knife.
5. Complete any additional washing, stretching, cooking, or cheddaring step.
6. Remove the Whey with an empty Bucket.
7. Collect and press the curds.
8. Pierce, wax, craft, or age the result when required.

A normal milk batch always produces eight identical curds.

• The Small Mold & Press consumes four individually slotted curds.
• The Wheel Mold & Press consumes all eight curds.

Curds remember the temperature at which they were made. Curds produced at the wrong temperature cannot be used in recipes that require another heat level.

Vat heat

The block directly below the Cheese Vat determines its temperature:

Heat	Heat source	Main uses
Low	Magma Block	Fresh Culture and low-heat Mesophilic recipes
Medium	Lit Campfire or lit Soul Campfire	Most Mesophilic and Blue Mold recipes
High	Lava or Lava Cauldron	Thermophilic recipes, Ricotta, and Brunost

The Cheese Vat displays a heating tray above Lava and above lit or unlit Campfires and Soul Campfires. An unlit Campfire displays the tray but provides no heat.

A Lava Cauldron provides high heat without displaying the heating tray.

Milk and cultures

• Adult cows use the normal Minecraft Milk Bucket.
• Adult goats and sheep provide their own Fromage milk buckets.
• Emptying a Milk Bucket into a Cauldron creates a full milk cauldron.
• A full milk cauldron fills three Glass Bottles.
• Fresh Milk Bottles become Sour Milk after one Minecraft day.
• Milk keeps its remaining souring time when moved, stored, or dropped.

Cultures can be multiplied by crafting one culture with a Sour Milk Bottle. This produces two copies of the same culture and returns the empty Glass Bottle.

Adult cows have a 15% chance to drop a non-edible Calf Stomach. Brewing a Calf Stomach into Water Bottles produces Rennet Bottles.

For Blue Cheese, add Mesophilic Culture first and then add Blue Mold Culture.

Aging rack

The Two-Story Cheese Aging Rack has two independently usable shelves. Aim at the lower or upper shelf when interacting.

• Right-click an empty shelf with an aging-stage cheese to place it.
• Sneak-right-click to remove an unfinished cheese.
• A completed cheese can be removed without sneaking.
• Right-click with a Clock to check the remaining aging time.

Unfinished cheese remembers its remaining aging time when removed or when the rack is broken. Aging only progresses while the cheese is inside an aging rack.

Eating and slicing placed cheese

Finished placeable cheeses can be eaten with an empty-hand right-click while the player is hungry.

• Large cheese wheels contain eight portions.
• Small cheeses and Mega Mozzarella contain four portions.
• Every portion restores 1.5 hunger icons with cheese-specific saturation.
• Aging-stage cheeses, including Waxed Cheddar and Waxed Edam Wheels, cannot be eaten.

Finished cheese can also be sliced with any item in #c:tools/knife.

• Craft a whole cheese with a tagged knife to obtain all of its slices.
• Large wheels produce eight slices.
• Small cheeses produce four slices.
• Mega Mozzarella produces four Mozzarella Balls.
• Right-click a placed finished cheese with a tagged knife to cut off one portion.
• The resulting slice or Mozzarella Ball drops on the ground.
• The placed cheese immediately updates to its next missing-portion model.
• Cutting works even when the player is not hungry.
• A damageable knife loses one durability per slicing action.
• Mining a placed cheese with a tagged knife drops only its remaining portions.

An untouched finished cheese drops itself when broken normally. Once any portion has been eaten or cut away, breaking it without a tagged knife does not drop the remaining cheese.

All placeable cheeses face their placer. Their models and hitboxes rotate with their facing and update after every removed portion.

Every cheese recipe

Fresh Cheese

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Fresh Culture over a Magma Block, then Rennet.
• Cut once to Large Curds, drain, and collect eight curds.
• Press four curds in the Small Mold & Press with no additive in Drain mode.
• Ready immediately.

Brie

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a Magma Block, then Rennet.
• Cut once, drain, and collect.
• Press eight Large Curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with White Mold Coating in Drain mode.
• Age the Unaged Brie Wheel for one Minecraft day.

Camembert

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a Magma Block, then Rennet.
• Cut once, drain, and collect.
• Press four Large Curds in the Small Mold & Press with White Mold Coating in Drain mode.
• Age the Unaged Camembert for one Minecraft day.

Gouda

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice to Medium Curds.
• Add a Water Bucket before draining to wash the curds.
• Drain the Diluted Whey and collect the curds.
• Press eight washed curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Light mode. The Bucket is returned.
• Age the Young Gouda Wheel for three Minecraft days.

Edam

• Make washed Medium Mesophilic Cow Curds exactly as for Gouda.
• Press eight washed curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Heavy mode. The Bucket is returned.
• Craft the Young Edam Wheel with Cheese Wax to create a Waxed Edam Wheel.
• Age the Waxed Edam Wheel for three Minecraft days.

Cheddar

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut three times to Small Curds and drain.
• Keep the lit Campfire or Soul Campfire below the vat and use the Curd Knife once more to cheddar the drained curds.
• Collect all eight curds.
• Press them in the Wheel Mold & Press with Salt in Heavy mode.
• Age the Fresh Cheddar Wheel for five Minecraft days.
• Alternatively, craft it with Cheese Wax and age the Waxed Cheddar Wheel for four Minecraft days.

Mozzarella and Mega Mozzarella

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Thermophilic Culture over Lava or a Lava Cauldron, then Rennet.
• Cut exactly twice to Medium Curds.
• Keep the high heat below the vat and use an empty hand before draining. This creates Stretchable Thermophilic Cow Curds.
• Drain and collect eight stretchable curds.
• Press four curds in the Small Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Light mode.
• The press produces four edible Mozzarella Balls and returns the Bucket.
• Craft four Mozzarella Balls together to make one placeable Mega Mozzarella.

If the vat still reports Medium Thermophilic Cow Curds, the stretching step has not been completed.

Parmesan

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Thermophilic Culture over Lava or a Lava Cauldron, then Rennet.
• Cut three times to Small Curds.
• Keep the high heat below the vat and use an empty hand before draining to cook the curds.
• Drain and collect all eight cooked curds.
• Press them in the Wheel Mold & Press with Salt in Heavy mode.
• Age the Fresh Parmesan Wheel for eight Minecraft days.

Blue Cheese

• Vat: Cow Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture + Blue Mold Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect Medium Blue-Mold Curds.
• Press eight curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with Salt in Light mode.
• Pierce the Fresh Blue Cheese Wheel with a Cheese Needle.
• Age the Pierced Blue Cheese Wheel for five Minecraft days.

Goat Cheese

• Vat: Goat Milk Bucket + Fresh Culture over a Magma Block, then Rennet.
• Cut once, drain, and collect.
• Press four Large Curds in the Small Mold & Press with no additive in Drain mode.
• Ready immediately.

Goat Feta

• Vat: Goat Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect.
• Press four Medium Curds in the Small Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Light mode.
• Age the Young Goat Feta for three Minecraft days.

Herbed Goat Cheese

• Vat: Goat Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect.
• Press four Medium Curds in the Small Mold & Press with Herb Mix in Drain mode.
• Age the Fresh Herbed Goat Cheese for one Minecraft day.

Feta

• Vat: Sheep Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect.
• Press four Medium Curds in the Small Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Light mode.
• Age the Young Feta for three Minecraft days.

Pecorino

• Vat: Sheep Milk Bucket + Thermophilic Culture over Lava or a Lava Cauldron, then Rennet.
• Cut three times.
• Keep the high heat below the vat and use an empty hand before draining to cook the curds.
• Drain and collect all eight cooked curds.
• Press them in the Wheel Mold & Press with Salt in Heavy mode.
• Age the Fresh Pecorino Wheel for five Minecraft days.

Sheep Blue Cheese

• Vat: Sheep Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture + Blue Mold Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect.
• Press eight Medium Blue-Mold Curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with Salt in Light mode.
• Pierce the Fresh Sheep Blue Cheese Wheel with a Cheese Needle.
• Age the Pierced Sheep Blue Cheese Wheel for five Minecraft days.

Manchego

• Vat: Sheep Milk Bucket + Mesophilic Culture over a lit Campfire or Soul Campfire, then Rennet.
• Cut twice, drain, and collect.
• Press eight Medium Curds in the Wheel Mold & Press with a Water Bucket in Light mode.
• Age the Young Manchego Wheel for three Minecraft days.

Ricotta

• Add one Whey Bucket to an empty Cheese Vat. The empty Bucket is returned.
• Keep Lava or a Lava Cauldron below the vat and add one Sour Milk Bottle. The empty Glass Bottle is returned.
• Use an empty hand on the vat to collect four Ricotta Curds.
• Press four Ricotta Curds in the Small Mold & Press with no additive in Drain mode.
• The press produces four edible Ricotta items.

Ricotta does not require Rennet, cutting, Whey draining, or aging.

Brunost

• Add one Whey Bucket to an empty Cheese Vat. The empty Bucket is returned.
• Keep Lava or a Lava Cauldron below the vat and add any fresh Cow, Goat, or Sheep Milk Bottle. Sour Milk does not work.
• The empty Glass Bottle is returned.
• Use an empty hand on the vat to collect four Brunost Mixture.
• Press four Brunost Mixture in the Small Mold & Press with no additive in Drain mode.
• The press produces one small placeable Brunost.

Brunost does not require Rennet, cutting, Whey draining, or aging.