Making Cheese
This page contains information about making hard cheese along with tips, instructions and useful techniques to help you start your own farm and living independently away from cities. Below are information about making Farmhouse Cheddar. If that's what you're loooking for then this is the place for you. Below you will find the most important aspects related to making cheese, just enough to get you started, if you have any question you can visit our forum and ask our expert farmers.
How to Make Cheese?
To make cheese we’re going to choose one which is a good choice for the first time hard cheese maker, since it won’t take as much time as traditional cheddar, yet allows you to eat it after it is made and will also improve with age. Our cheese will be the Farmhouse Cheddar. It is a hard cheese made with a few shortcuts to produce a cheese that is a little rustic in appearance but is similar in flavor to cheddar.
Farmhouse Cheddar Recipe
- 3 gallons whole milk
- 1 pint heavy cream (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon Mesophilic-A starter culture
- 1½ teaspoons of 30% calcium chloride in 2 tablespoons distilled water
- ½ rennet tablet dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water
- 1 teaspoon + 3 Tablespoons flaked salt
Combine milk, cream and diluted calcium chloride in a 16 quart stock pot or double boiler. Slowly heat the mixture to 86°F, stirring to prevent the milk from scorching. Turn off the heat and stir in ¼ teaspoon Mesophilic-A culture. Mix thoroughly, cover the pot and allow it to rest at 86°F for 1½ hours.
Slowly increase the temperature of the milk to 90°F. Stir 1 teaspoon flaked salt into the dissolved rennet solution. Stir this solution gently into the 90°F milk. Turn off the heat and let milk set covered for 1½ hours or until the curd shows a clean break.
Using a long bladed stainless steel knife cut the curd into ½ inch cubes. Indirectly heat the curds to 100°F by increasing the temperature no faster than 2°F every five minutes. It should take 30 minutes to reach 100°F. This is best done in a double boiler or sink full of 100-110°F water. Stir frequently to prevent matting. Adjust the temperature of your sink water as needed.
Line a colander with cheesecloth and place it in a sink. Pour the curds and whey into the colander and allow them to drain. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of cheese salt over the curd and gently mix it in using your hands.
Place the curds into the plastic cheese mold which is lined with cheesecloth. Pull up on the sides of the cloth to avoid any bunching. After pouring all the curds into the mold, lay the excess length of cheesecloth evenly over the top of the curds. Place the follower (smooth side down) on top of the curd and set a four pound weight (half gallon of water) on top of the follower. Press the cheese for 15 minutes.
Remove the cheese from the press and take it out of the cheesecloth. Place the cheesecloth back in the mold and return the cheese to the mold upside down. Fold the excess cheesecloth over the cheese and again put the follower on top of the cheese. Now press the cheese with 8 pounds pressure for 12 hours (1 gallon of water).
Remove the cheese from the press as before and unwrap the cloth. Mix 1 tablespoon of salt with ½ cup of water. Using a corner of the cheese cloth, lightly apply a saltwater wash to the cheese. Place the cheese on a bamboo mat to air dry for 1-3 days turning over twice each day. When it starts to form a yellowish rind and is dry to the touch it is ready to eat or wax for storage.
If you liked this page, you might also be interested in this page about Making Butter or Dairy Products.
This page is just one of many pages dedicated to sustainable living through organic farming and living wisely. Making cheese will enable you become one step closer to food independance. This is beneficial to your health, peace of mind and lifestyle, great for nature, and reduces your carbon footprint. You can really do it yourself, grow your own food, raise your own animals, from simple means. You can go back to nature and sustainability one step at a time. Today making cheese, tomorrow something else. That's why we have many articles that you can find on the left side of this page to choose from. Each time try to add something to your farm. Sustainable living is your ticket to true freedom. Enjoy the rest of our pages.
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