Traditional Cheddar

Ok, so it took almost 6 hours to make this and i am not sure I did it correct! SO, I made a traditional cheddar cheese (2 lbs) . Everything went good until the end. After you heat the curds and keep them at 100F and then cut and stack them on themselves, in two hours you are supposed to be left with something with the consistency of "chicken".
What I had left was more like rubbery chicken. And now that it has come out of the press, you can actually see the individual curd balls in the cheese( hard to describe) And it has small cracks ( where the curds meet together). I am wondering what went wrong? I have read that PH is important, and I am wondering if I heated the curds too much while "cheddaring" ( the water got up to 105F) ? Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!

It looks okay to me. I would let it dry, salt it and wax it to age. I think that the aging process will meld the individual curds together.

I've been aging my first attempt at cheese making: traditional cheddar...since 3-6-08. I started noticing mold growing underneath the red wax. So today I cut it in half and took off the wax. I plan to take the mold of and rewax. Is this a mistake? Why did the happen? It tastes okay at this point will it get better?

Mold growth is completely normal, and natural. If you keep cutting it off, you'll have no cheese left to eat by the time its aged properly. Also, loose the wax and use a cotton (muslin) wrapping to encourage proper drying and mold growth. Cellar for a year.

http://www.cheesemaking.com/includes/modules/jWallace/ChsPgs/1Cheddar/Index.html

thanks! Duh!! I should have just left it alone. Ah well it's the first one so...now I know for next time...which is a derby cheese I'm making today. Thanks for the link too...very helpful!!