More cheese coming! I snuck one past...

A couple of weeks ago I made a stirred curd cheddar with GREEN CHILE! Man am I excited. I'll have more on that in another post. I plan to make stirred curd with Jalapeno soon. Stay tuned for that one WITH pictures and video. It is truly a different experience. More tactile and soul soothing.

On another note...I've made some modifications to the cheese press. They are quite minor in appearance but make a world of difference! It is so much easier and more precise now. I like it much, much more. Pics and possibly even an assembly, dis assembly video will be coming in the near future.

On yet another note, kindof...I might be making and selling a small number of these presses. It seems to me that the costs associated with making pressed cheeses can be prohibitive to many. I plan to make a press that is easy, stores small, and is affordable. After all, we are talking about food here. Fun, delicious, easy, accessible, and affordable. That is how I feel about food.

Making cheddar today! pt 7

This rough, loose looking mass is the cheese after the first 10 min press. Also the whey drained off during this time. After the second press it is a bit tighter and after the 12 hr press there are no cracks at all. Only the lines left by the cheese cloth. I think next time I'll mill the curd to just a bit smaller pieces and see if it packs more nicely. To see how it looks after the 12 hr press look at one of my earlier posts about waxing my first cheddar.

Making cheddar today! pt 6

Here I've lined the mold with cheese cloth. This is so that the pressed cheese won't stick to the mold and fall all apart when I try to remove it from the press. Next I loaded the milled/salted curd into the mold. You can see that whey has already started to drain out just from the mold packing process. I then line the 'follower' (part that does the pressing) with cheese cloth and place it onto the curd. I find it extremely important to carefully line the mold and make sure that you minimize the cheese cloth overlapping to prevent large creases in the cheese. I still haven't figured a way of preventing the creases entirely but I did minimize them. Finally, I've show how ready the whey drains off under only 10 pounds.

Farmhouse cheddar in 2# size is pressed in 3 phases:

1. 10 #'s for 10 min
2. 20 #'s for 10 min
3. 50 #'s for 12 hr

After the first press of 10 pounds I see very little whey drain off but I do see the size shrink as air and small amounts of whey are pressed out.

Making cheddar today! pt 5

This is how the curd looks after it has been broken into smaller pieces. It is supposed to be 'walnut sized' pieces. Also, you can see how much whey (and looks like some fat) has drained out just during the milling process. After I poured off the whey I added salt and mixed VERY thoroughly.

Making cheddar today! pt 4

These images are of the curd after it has drained 1 hr. It has lumped together but it is still very much a crumbly, drippy mass. Notice the way it breaks roughly and easily. And notice how big the curd really is. My hand is much smaller than how much curd I've got.

Making cheddar today!

I am going to post several entries today, so that it is a bit less confusing for readers, I hope. There will be some video and some pics so please be patient.

Following are pics the milk being warmed to 90 degrees. Then being stirred after I've added the mesophilic starter. I didn't repeat showing the stirring process after adding the rennet since there is really nothing different to see. While adding the rennet, however, it is important to stir while adding the rennet so that it is evenly disbursed. I couldn't show that since I only have two hands.

Final Cheese Press, for now

This is as far as I'm going to be taking the cheese press build for now. You can see in the pictures that it is VERY stable. Notice only have two tiny pieces of dowel between the mold and the weight. I rocked the whole thing to see if it would fall and it did not. The total weight on it at this point is 50 lbs. And don't forget this 'collapses' to flat. Very nice design.

Cheese set to age

Last Sunday I made my first attempt at making Farmhouse Cheddar. This is a simple hard cheese that only needs to age for 30 days minimum. It was such an enjoyable experience that I'm going to make another this Sunday. Being my first try I was extremely careful about temperatures and triple checked the instructions as I went along. I pressed the cheese (this is why I built the cheese press described in an earlier post) for 13 hours and then set it to dry at room temperature. The drying process can take 2 - 4 days and in my case it took 3 and a half days, roughly, and lost about 6 oz by weight. The final cheese (without the wax) is 2 lb .5 oz. I started the process Monday morning and it was ready to wax by Thursday evening. Got it done. Here are a couple of pictures of the cheese before and after the wax was applied. So this cheese will be ready in about 30 days but I'm giving it 37 just to make sure it has flavor. My current temperature is not ideal though. At 60 degrees it is a bit warm. I would like it to be at about 55 however my basement is 60 and the refrigerator in my garage currently cannot climb above 38 as the weather here in SW Michigan is still cold. So, basement, 60 degrees, and inside a stainless steel stockpot with lid to keep any possible pests away (mice, roaches, etc). I don't know that I even have them down there but I sure would hate to lose my first cheese to such a silly thing.

Enjoy the pictures.


Dried but no wax.


Applying the wax.


Done!