I am so glad to see this. I’m a long time curd nerd, and a year or so ago, got a stirmate. Stirring of the curds is the only part of Cheesemaking I dislike. Using this, I felt a bit guilty, and cheaty, if that’s a word. Seeing you embrace this as you did did me a lot of good! Not good for all circumstances, as you said, but an asset in others! Thank you!

in watching a lot of videos about commercial cheesemaking, their equipment stirs in a way that makes the curds crash together from different directions (gently), while this seems to just go in one direction as you mentioned. having the center level stir in a diff direction would be cool, but not very economical to engineer. great idea about it reversing direction intermittently! hopefully the manufacturer sees this video and 'gets' the cheesemaking side of it.

Great and honest review Gav. Thanks for posting this.

Oh nice, I remember asking you about this during Ask the Cheeseman. Thank you for making a video covering these!

I've had this on my wish list for ages. It's really great seeing you review it and knowing your thoughts. I'm planning to buy a fancy schmancy stand mixer with induction cooking which I want to try using for cheese, but will be limited to 5L batches with that so even if it works beautifully, the stir mate is my plan for bigger batches. I'll make sure to update my wishlist with your link 🙂

Thank you so much for this review! I've been looking for a pot stirrer for ages. Mainly for custards but this will be great for cheese as well! You're channel is awesome, BTW. I really appreciate all of the vast knowledge you so willingly share with us. God bless you! ✝🥰

i really really amazed of any improvisation this channel shows

Hello just wanted to tell you that youre an inspiration in these trying times I grew up near a dairy farm and can finally have that homemade touch to my cheese again at a fair price after moving to the more industrial regions of the world

Thanks for the video. We will be collaborating with Stirmate for just this type of thing... cheese-making. It was nice how you explained what you observed. We chatted with Troy (the son). It's a small family biz - they seem to be very nice folks.

I got one of these for Christmas; we used it for making candy, but it seemed it might not work as well for cheese, since my curds are always so fragile. I may need to get that extension and try it! Thanks for doing the review.

I'm thinking the problem with clumping is because it is only stirring horizontally. If there are some options to install diagonal wings on the lower stirring arms that would lift the curd up again, I think that would help a lot. I'd go to my local tin smith / (roof thatcher/plumber?)/sheet metal company and get them to cut and bend some thin stainless steel/foodsafe metal sheets into wings that you could slide onto the arms. An "U" shaped sheet where the arms of the U are long enough to be bent 180 degrees once, then 135 degrees at the start of the bottom/wing, then the bottom part of the U would be 3-6cm long wing that now would lift the curds up. It could also just be a square bent at 180+135, but that might cause turbulence and build up beneath/inside the wing. The profile of the bent sheet would look like a V, where one end would have a small 180 degree hook and the center bend would be at a 135 degree. the length of the profile could be anything from 2-4cm to 10 cm, but I'm guessing it would be smart to have a number of 3-5 cm long ones instead of a 15 cm long one, so you can let the whey flow between and reduce the strain. It could also be smart to add a 45-60 degree counter bend at the end of the wing in case you want to make it scrape the bottom of the pot without getting a razor edge breaking the bottom of the pot.

I would like to hear an update on this a few months in to see if you used it more or less over time. As to the clumping problem I wonder if you push the stir sticks through holes that are wider apart making a bigger gap (so making a single stick spread over more distance) for the curd to move through, just use less sticks overall, perhaps drop it to two

Yep, this is what I need. I have been looking for an automatic stirrer to use for making tofu. I bought the Advanti but it cannot be adjusted, it has a fixed width blade. As I am Korean, I started looking at automatic rotating cooking pots or stirrer pots (like Lampcook) and those don’t have the features I think would work well….both of them have ceramic blades (why, in this day and age are they not silicone covered) and people have mentioned that the Rollpan stirrers chipped early on. And Lampcook has the same kind of stirrer….all metal. One of the rotating pots I looked at would work….you can angle it at different degrees…the others are vertical rotating pots only…..but it’s 2000 watts because it also cooks….and I didn’t want to be confined to electric use only. Sooo……looking are your review, I think the Stirmate is a go. It’s cheap, it has silicone stirrers and has multi layered blades…..and I can use it on my gas stove or my induction NuWave. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to do this very detailed review. 🎉❤

great review gav!

Hi Gavin we make Pitchfork Cheddar here in Somerset UK even our 3000litre vat we use needs someone to keep the curds in suspension otherwise they will clump together…

Even having to remove the device to stir by hand every 5 to 10 minutes would make an impossible stirring task doable. My back makes many tasks I used to perform daily impossible to do now. The Stir Mate sounds wonderful.

Interesting little device. 👍

“Pot stirers” are really useful. Plant tour?

Great video. Could be very useful for long stirring cheeses.

Gotta admit- as a busy mom definitely have thought one of these would be handy!

Perfect review. I don't make hard cheeses through choice, so I won't be needing it. It's great for people that don't have access to good hard cheeses. (Bit of Schadenfreude there). It would be good if it could reverse though. Easy enough to engineer through the use of a semiconductor with logic gates.

Hey Gavin i made a pressed cheese and forgot to let it dry and form a rind before coating in lard do you know any way to get it off so it can rind

Thanks for the review. You've saved me a considerable amount of money as this definitely isn't something I should be buying.

Btw, you can make it so faster if you just replace the dc motor inside (cost about $6) new motor has a bit less torque but much faster.

Oh wow, 2 minutes ago! Can’t wait to see what you think about this.

I'm sure Stir Mate could build in a reverse logic chip. My inexpensive automatic watch winder will turn in one direction for 2 minutes, idle for 6 then reverse direction for 2 minutes. So it is possible.

Hello Gavin, What are your thoughts about using this to stir the milk while heating. That's a stage that I spend a lot of time stirring. Thanks and Aloha

Looks perfect as a stand in for the 3 hours of stirring required for Swiss cheese

Can you pull out the red section, flip it upside down, and re-insert it into the frame? It wouldn't be an auto-reverse, but might help with the clumping frustration.

Gavin if the red device is turned upside down does operate in the reverse direction ? Rob

I am a home cheese maker of many years I have a second stirmate and they both went the same way - after a while the motor slips out from the bracket and drops into the cheese - good bye stirmate It would help it was able to be attached to both sides Perhaps you could make a suggestion to thwm ? Otherwise it is a good product

it needs some stirring frequency, direction and speed options

Can you turn the red long block upside down and put it back in it's brace to make it reverse? I know because of the clip, you can't turn the whole thing upside down, but if the long red block is just a block and slides into the connector for your pot, will it go in and the rod connect upside down? It would stir the opposite way then right? Serious. Not sarcasm.

Is this good for cheddar?

Having it in the centre, just rotates the mass. Give it a whirl again, but closer to the edge. With shorter arms of course. That ought to give better agitation.

How noisy is it? Would it drive you mad if it was running for a few hours?

Gavin, every time over made cheese it ended up sticking to the cheese cloth, any tips to prevent this?

I'm currently at 1:14 and I don't think I've ever had such low expectations for an infomercial product, and that's saying a LOT. Let's see what happens! Edit: Wow. It might actually work sometimes!

Spinned cheese 🧀

A cheese video, nicely accompanied by cheesy music.

This one is not for me. Once you hand over part or all of the cheesemaking process to a mechanical device, as far as I am concerned, it's no longer hand made. Stirring, be it for 10, 20, 60 or more minutes is just part of the process. You can adjust your speed of stirring and how gently or firmly you stir, based on how the curds look and feel. You can't get this kind of control from a machine. That's a pass from me. Glad to see how it worked (or in this case, failed to work) and confirm my decision to steer clear of mechanical stirring devices.

Looks a bit useless to me.

Yep, this is what I need. I have been looking for an automatic stirrer to use for making tofu. I bought the Advanti but it cannot be adjusted, it has a fixed width blade. As I am Korean, I started looking at automatic rotating cooking pots or stirrer pots (like Lampcook) and those don’t have the features I think would work well….both of them have ceramic blades (why, in this day and age are they not silicone covered) and people have mentioned that the Rollpan stirrers chipped early on. And Lampcook has the same kind of stirrer….all metal. One of the rotating pots I looked at would work….you can angle it at different degrees…the others are vertical rotating pots only…..but it’s 2000 watts because it also cooks….and I didn’t want to be confined to electric use only. Sooo……looking are your review, I think the Stirmate is a go. It’s cheap, it has silicone stirrers and has multi layered blades…..and I can use it on my gas stove or my induction NuWave. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to do this very detailed review. 🎉❤ Would the Cozyel self stirring cooking pot (Amazon) work better for you. It stirs vertically and horizontally.