First ever attempt at cheese making- farmhouse cheddar

[Srimmey]

I did it! After months of lurking on this forum and watching you tube videos, I took the dive and made my first cheese.

Picture and notes below, I’ll definitely be making more again soon.

3/31/23 - farmhouse cheddar rev1

1. 1.5 gallon of organic valley whole milk (Heated to 90 deg)
2. 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk + 1/4 tsp calcium chloride (added once milk hit 90 deg, let sit for 15 minutes)
3. Added 1/4 tsp of rennet, let sit for 50 minutes unit I had a clean break
4. Cut into 1” square cubes
5. Stir gently to break away from sides, let rest for 5 minutes
6. Stir again to break up curds, let rest for 15 minutes
7. Stir a final time until way is separating nicely and curds are rounded
8. Transfer to a cheese cloth squeeze out to make softballs, transfer softball curds to another bowl and drain out way intermittently
9. Push cheese cloth in cheese form, layer and salt. Start forming cheese into mold. Made a total of 3 layers…
10. Pressed 12 hours with 8 lbs, flipped pressed 12 hours with 25’ish pounds.
11. Air dry, flip every 12 hours until done

 

[passedpawn]

Awesome! Keep a container of saturated saltwater and a piece of cheesecloth to wipe down the cheese occasionally - those crevices (which are normal) can be troublesome. If you wipe agressively, you can effectively close them up.

Keep a logbook of your recipes. Cheese is a very slow food - takes months to get to the final product (haha, try parmesan). When you have a winner, you'll need to have notes on your process and recipe if you hope to repeat.

Beware of fruit flies. If you need to dry a cheese before putting in cave, find a way to protect them against these little nasty creatures. I have experiences here that you don't want to know about.

I'm shocked a little bit that the organic milk made curds. Organic milk is usually"Ultra-Pasteurized", which normally a huge problem with cheesemakers. UP milk will form very weak curds at best. I see on the Organic Valley site that their gallons are UP, but their 1/2 gallon is not, so maybe you went with the latter.

Off topic, but I love your countertop. Quartz or ?

 

[Srimmey]

Thank you for the advice, a large portion of my inspiration to make cheese comes from your post.

1. What is saturated salt water? Do you mean cheese cloth saturated with salt water? In the video I watched they never mentioned this, the only thing they talked about was using apple cider vinegar to wipe down any mold that grows in the outside.

2. I have extensive notes so far, I plan to do a logbook similar to my brewing log book.

3. Based off what I read that happened to your jarlsburg cheese, I am very aware of fruit flies. I have a wine fridge in the kitchen which is being converted to a cheese fridge since our household is going alcohol free. Right now it’s still cold out so they aren’t an issue but come summer time I will need to start putting out traps.

4. I used whole gallons milk jugs, they said “pasteurized, homogenized”. I’m guessing the calcium chloride and cultured buttermilk saved my bacon here. I also found some 1/2 gallon jugs of milk for sale with are pasteurized but not homogenized, I’ll give those a go next time. I held off this time because they are big $$$. Where I live, getting fresh unpasteurized milk is near impossible.

5. White pearl quartzite, thank you for noticing! My wife and I just finished up our kitchen remodel at the beginning of march.