Taking the Mystery out of Cheesemaking (Farmhouse Cheddar)

Friends who have never made cheese seem to think I'm doing something really unbelievable.  It's not a big deal really, or it doesn't have to be.  I thought I'd post some photos to walk through the Farmhouse Cheddar recipe I've been using so you can see that it's something anyone could do.  While I do order some ingredients (culture & rennet from dairyconnection.com) most of what I use is just ordinary kitchen stuff...and some ordinary not kitchen stuff.  :)  Some people boil all their utensils prior to making cheese.  This is a step I omit.  My dishwasher does a fine job and I've never had a problem with my cheese from not sterilizing everything.  I think if you follow basic cleanliness procedures all the time anyway, it shouldn't be necessary. 

I'm a lazy cook, so I tend to make large amounts of food that can be eaten as leftovers, and cheese is no exception.  If I'm going to go to the effort, I want to make lots of it.  So, I start with 4 gallons of milk.

 Here is my 4 gallons of milk, quite clearly in a 4 gallon pot!  Heat the milk to 85 degrees (or 90 if using cow's milk) and add 1/4 tsp of a Mesophilic culture (ordered item).  I hear that a cup of cultured buttermilk will also work, but I've not tried that yet.   Stir it well and let it sit for 45 minutes.  This is a good time to work on laundry.  :)

 This is a rennet tablet, dissolving in water (above) and below, after stirred up into the water (half a cup of cold, un-chlorinated stuff, by the way--use reverse osmosis water or buy distilled).  If you prefer liquid rennet (which is what I will use from now on, now that my tablets are gone) use about 3/4 tsp dissolved in 1/4 cup of water (same water cautions apply.)  Add it to the milk by strewing it all across it, rather than dumping in one spot.  Then, stir it up well.  If you use unhomogonized cow's milk, you will need to top stir to keep the cream from rising to the top.  Regular ol' stirring will do if using goat's milk.

 After adding the rennet and stirring well for about a minute, cover the container and let it set for another 45 minutes so the curd can form.  This is a good time to grab a shower, or read the kiddos a book, or mop the floor, or whatever.  Just plan on sticking around on cheese making days!

 After the 45 minutes is up, you will cut the curd.  I use one of those long cake frosting knife/spatula things.  This is what it will look like when you've cut the curd.  Yours might look neater than mine.  Surprisingly, I'm not a Curd Neatness Nazi.  You then bring the temperature of the curds and whey (Miss Muffett apparently wasn't patient enough to wait for the cheese) up to 100 degrees, stirring gently.  Some people like to put their cheese pot in a sink of hot water for a hot water bath to insure the temperature doesn't rise too quickly.  Are you kidding?  This is 4 gallons of milk, and I don't want to have to lift it any more than I have to!  Not only that, I have a nice pot with a thick bottom that heats evenly.  The lowest setting on my stove will heat it slowly enough for me.  I'm not terribly patient.  This is a good time to have a glass of wine.  Stir with the right hand, sip and check temperature with the left.  Should take somewhere around 30 minutes.  The curds will shrink and you'll get lots more whey out of them.  When the temperature reaches 100 degrees, stop heating and let the curds settle for about 5 minutes.  Then, pour off some whey.

 Above is the pot of curds and some remaining whey.  Below is a pot of poured off whey.  Sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly patient, I use this to make ricotta.  This time, I fed it to the dogs.  Poppy just had puppies and is making lots of milk for them and I figured she could use the extra goodies in whey. 

She shared it with her husband (Bear) and in-laws (Teddie and Samson).  Such a hospitable lady.  ;)

 Next, the curds need to be separated from the remaining whey.  This is just a cut up pillow case, washed and bleached as I do with all the whites, lining a regular kitchen colandar, sitting in my sink. 

 Dump the contents of the pot into the pillow case lined colander.

 I then gather up the edges of the pillow case and tie them up with a regular ol' hair band.  I like the thick ones, and reserve a few from the package just for kitchen use.  The hair band can be hung on a cabinet pull and hung over the original cheese pot to catch the draining whey.  Let it drain for an hour.  About half way through, open up the bag, flip the curds over, and rehang for the remainder of the hour.

 This is what a chunk of the curds will look like after draining for an hour.  Break them up into walnut sized pieces, and mix in a tablespoon of non-iodized salt.  Or not.  I think I've forgotten the salt and it's still good.  Non-iodized salt can be purchased as canning salt--very cheap at the end of the summer where ever canning supplies are sold.  Or, you could pay a lot of money for special "cheese salt" but I don't think it's much different.

 Here, the curd chunks are broken up and in my "press" lined with a tight meshed cheese cloth.  My press is simply a steamer basket and pot made for steaming veggies on the stove, a child's plate that fits in well as a follower, and some dumb bells.  One day, I may buy a fancy press, but for now this works fine.

 Wrap the cheese cloth over the curds...

 Put follower on top..

Press with 10 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes. 

 Turn the cheese over and apply 20 pounds of pressure for 12 hours (or somewhere thereabouts).  I start the cheese in the evening and when I get to this stage, it's bed time.  In the morning after David is off to work, I turn the cheese again and apply 20 pounds of pressure for another 12 hours.  It just sits out on the counter top all day and is fine.

 Here's the cheese the next evening, fresh out of the "press".

 Unwrapping the cheese...  The side that has the cheese cloth bunched up on it isn't nearly as pretty as the other side!

 See!  Now the cheese will need to air dry at room temperature on a wooden board for 3 to 5 days.  It needs to be flipped every few hours.  The purpose of this is so that the cheese will dry out and develop a nice rind.

 When the cheese is dry, it can be waxed, and then placed in a cheese cave to age for 2 to 4 months.  I have cheese wax, but I have no desire to fool with it yet, so instead, I've coated the cheese in olive oil, then rubbed that with a mix of salt (non-iodized) and minced garlic.  Then, because I don't have a cheese cave, I put the cheese in a gallon zip lock bag and set it at the top back of my fridge to age. 

  This is a cheese I made a while back that will be ready at Thanksgiving.  It was also made with 4 gallons of milk.  You can tell that the cheese yield from the recent batch was a bit higher.  Probably due to the increase in butterfat in the goat's milk this time of year.  And that's about it!

If there is any mold on the surface of the cheese when it's ready to be eaten, you just cut it off.  My first Farmhouse Cheddar, I didn't do any sort of coating, and it developed a good bit of mold on the outside, but the cheese was great!  Those that I've coated this way have a significantly smaller amount of mold.  One day, when I get a cheese press and can get a finished product that doesn't have such an uneven top to it, I will give waxing a shot. But for now, I'm looking forward to opening up Thanksgiving Cheese!  :)