Learning to Make Cheese

In past postings, I've told you about the weather, Mark's work, and even our cats - but I haven't shared much of what I've been up to lately.  I've been keeping myself very busy with projects I've been wanting to do for years.  One of which is making cheese.

I've shared in the past that we have neighbors who owns two milking cows.

Allie and Bella

They provide us with raw milk in exchange for helping them milk (when they are out of town) and providing them some of the cheese I make...it's a nice trade.  So far, I've made soft cheeses, such as farmer's cheese and mozzarella as well as some hard cheeses like cheddar and colby.  I am looking forward to trying cream cheese and butter.

The soft cheeses are pretty easy to make and they don't take more than 1-2 hours of your time; however,  hard cheeses take a time investment that I was not willing to make while working full time.  It takes 4-6 hours to actually make the cheese, then you have to dress it, press it, redress it, and press it again...and sometimes several more times.  No wonder good cheese is expensive!  I hope it will be worth my time and effort - I'll let you know in March.  You see, cheddar and colby have to be aged for 30-60 days before they are ripe.  Since most of you are not interested in the exact steps or recipe, I'll just show you an overview of what it takes:

Here are some supplies needed. Anything that touches the milk needs to be sterilized for health safety concerns.  You need cheese cultures (available from cheese supplies web sites), slotted spoons, cheese thermometer, distilled water, measuring cups, colander, cheese cloth, a long bread slicing knife to cut the curds, cheese molds, and weights to press the cooked cheese in the molds.  I had most of these items in our kitchen - I just had to purchase the molds and cultures.

You bring the milk up to the proper temperature - slowly so as not to scorch it

You turn off the heat, add the culture, stir, wrap it in towels to keep the heat constant, and let sit for 1 hour.  Then add the second culture, stir, and let it set for 1/2 hour until it turns solid

When it forms a solid curd, you cut the curd with a knife in all directions, stir to break up the curds - then heat it up higher (SLOWLY) so the curds separate from the whey

After draining the curds through cheese cloth (can take another hour) - you place the cheese in a bowl,
cut them up again and add salt GENTLY

Gayle gave me this bowl and it is the PERFECT bowl for salting curds - cheddar curds feel squishy

Dressing the cheese - line a mold with cheese cloth, add the curds, and fold the cloth over the top of the curds

The "driver" sets on the mold and is pressed down with weights

You can actually use a veggie can on top of the driver, then add more weights

I used Mark's hand weights, which pushed the excess whey out and compressed the cheese.  Mark will be making me an proper cheese press - but at first, I've had to improvise

This is the finished pressed cheddar - it is white this time as I did not have the typical artificial orange coloring that is in most cheeses. The wheels had to dry out over one day for them to create a natural skin, then they were waxed for aging.  I waxed the wheels with beeswax - which is the same as the red cheese wax - but more natural.  After the beeswax was melted, I brushed it on with a natural bristle paint brush and labeled with cheese type and creation date.

                                                               

The first two wheels of Cold Comfort Farmhouse Cheddar!  Here are photos of our cheese cave (an old dorm fridge, set at 50 degrees, with a pan of water sitting in the bottom to build humidity).  It has wire racks so I don't have to turn the cheese daily.  The journal sitting on the fridge holds my notes on how I made the cheese, so if it is too dry or moist, I can note it in order to learn and tweak the recipe in the future.

So now I have cheddar and colby aging.  In March, when the cheese is ready, we plan to invite the young farm couple (Steve and Melissa) over for a tasting evening.  I'll let you know how it turns out!  I am hoping to have this cave filled with cheese by March, with me building experience as I go.  

I hope to be able to give you all Christmas gifts next year of Cold Comfort Farm applesauce, jams, baked goods, and aged cheese!

If you are ever interested in making cheese with me, you are very welcome and we'll even let you take your cheese home.  

My other projects are quilting, weaving, spinning, and researching my book. I'll share these with you as I work on them.