Tuesday

Homemade Cheddar Cheese

     It's been 2 months.  I tried it in macaroni and cheese, and an egg bake on Sunday.  I was a little scared to use it full strength, because I thought it smelled a little sour.  Maybe it need to age longer? Maybe I didn't have the right humidity down in the pantry? I used 1/2 homemade and 1/2 aged cheddar cheese that I bought - everything tasted great!

Homemade Farmhouse Cheddar. It looked good :-)




It shredded pretty good....would it melt?





It melted just fine.  Yay!
The egg bake was great, but the macaroni and cheese
was even better -- so good I forgot to take a picture :-)

          I made this cheese with raw milk.  Raw milk cheese needs to be aged at least 2 months to be considered safe.  I now want to be putting up enough cheese to have a good rotation going from the pantry.  The goal...never buy cheese from the store again :-)  The 3 cheeses I would like to perfect are: cheddar (I think the farmhouse cheddar will work just fine for that), mozzarella, and parmesan.  That covers the cheeses we use for meals we make off and on.  It makes it sound like we have cheese everyday....hardly.  But, I sure am glad I know how to make it -- and I'll keep practicing to perfect it.  That being said....anyone out there that makes cheese know why it had that "sour" smell?

.....dr momi

Linked To: Homestead Barn Hop #55
Linked To: Frugal Days Sustainable Ways #20

17 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

congrats on success! :)

Jill said...

You are the only person I "know" that makes their own cheese. How fantastic! Sure looks good!

Carolyn said...

Wish I could give you tips on cheesemaking, but as I've failed on two separate instances in making hard cheese and even bombed mozzarella, I'm absolutely no help.

I'd LOVE to know how to make a good hard cheese and mozzarella. We have a pizza almost every Friday and I HATE having to buy the cheese at the grocery store when I have so much milk at the house!

laughwithusblog said...

Oh my goodness! Yum! I want to try some.

Candy C. said...

I'm no help on your cheese question either, I only make the chevre and the fresh pressed Queso Blanco with my goat milk. I don't really have the proper aging facilities to try the "fancier" stuff!
I wonder if New England Cheesmaking has a "help" forum?

Intentional Living Homestead said...

Congratulations on your success. I have never made cheese before and probably won't....reason, we cannot buy raw milk in Canada....at least on here on the West Coast.

Happy Spring!!!!

rugosarosefarm said...

ooh pretty. Looks very professional. Did you use the new cheese press or the old method?

Gorges Smythe said...

It looks delicious!

odiie said...

It looks wonderful! My cheese seem to have less of a sour smell if I take the cream off. Don't know if that's the reason though. And some cheeses I make just need to be aged longer. I'm still experimenting and learning.

MommySetFree said...

How exciting! I haven't done any aged hard/ cheeses yet...but I want too! Did you post your recipe/method yet?? :-)

Unknown said...

Making cheese--that's something I have not yet tried. Hoping to get up the nerve!!! Stop reading this and get back to Delaney! I can almost hear her!

dr momi said...

I got behind on commenting with Delaney's birth...but I'm back :-)

Tex....we didn't die after eating it...I'd call that a success :-)

Jill....too funny -- I bet there's more people out there to meet :-)

Carolyn....I have made mozzarella once and...it turned out! (I was more surprised than any one) I think we just have to commit to practicing making it till we "get it". Lots of reading in between.

Esther....it's funny with the grandkids -- white cheese makes them leary LOL. I think I will use the annetto (yellow coloring -- I think it's natural) next time!

Candy....I'm on New England Supplies facebook page -- going there next with my question.

Treasure Evermore....You can actually make cheese from non-ultra-pasturized from the store. Some of the recipes heat the milk way up anyway (i.e. mozzarella)so the enzyme benefit of raw milk wouldn't be there. You should try it!

rugosarosefarm....yes, this was my first cheese with the new cheese press. I wanted to see how it turned out before I kept on going. Now I'll do a post showing the whole thing :-)

dr momi said...

Gorges Smith....thanks it was very good!

odiie....thanks for the things to consider. I think the next cheddar I will let age longer and see how that is.

MommySetFree....I'll do a post on the whole process with the next cheese I make.

Ronda....I just know you will try it some day LOL!

jp@A Green Ridge said...

You may want to ask Glenda at "Living and Gardening in the Ozarks"...she KNOWS EVERYTHING and is an awesome lady!!! And she has a cow that she milks, makes yogurt, butter, etc!!!...:)JP

Anonymous said...

Dr. Momi,

I would be very interested in HOW to make cheese. I hadn't gotten quite that far yet in my self sufficiency. But my family eats cheese quite a bit (a couple times a week) so this would definitely be something I should learn how to do.
Sandi

dr momi said...

A Quiet Corner....I started following Glenda, and asked New England Supply on ther facebook page...I'll get to the bottom of i :-)

Sandi....I just had a cheese omlet with my cheese...was that tasty!!! I so will be doing it again...and I'll be blogging about it..stay tuned :-)

Lady Farmer said...

You are my hero! I want to learn to make cheese someday, too! Your's looks so pretty and delicious!