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

My New Cheese Press

     The kids all got together, for my Christmas and birthday present, ( I have a December birthday)  and bought me this:




A NEW cheese press.

 

.....which is so much better than my OLD cheese press.
(which has a story....here)

     I can't wait to use it.   .....jean

Linked To: Farm Photo Friday

Official Wisconsin Cheese Curds

       I made them, so they are official because I live in Wisconsin :-)  Cheese curds are big here in Northeast Wisconsin.  Every Fri. you can buy them fresh from just about every gas station and grocery store.  Cheese curds are only good fresh, as in, made & then sold.  No putting them in the refrigerator.  If you do, they will loose their "squeak".  Did you know when you bite into fresh cheese curds they squeak?  Yup, they do.

     Anyway, if you're having a get-together and cheese curds are an appetizer, the party will have a great start! So, there are two cheeses I want to learn how to make.  Mozzarella for homemade pizza, and cheddar -- just for the cheese curds.  (And if I ripen some cheddar cheese, well yummy too.)

    Today I spent practicing making cheese curds, since I still don't have a cheese press.  Note to self : "put your glasses on when reading the thermometer."  I heated the milk to 80 degrees thinking I was reading 90 degrees on the thermometer.  Caught it after I put in the culture.  :-)  This is called "practicing".  I'm sure I'll get something fairly tasty......I'll have to come up with a "new name" for my cheese...lol!

Cutting the curd.  I have a very hard time making a straight cut!

Draining the curd.  (The whey is going into my breakfast shakes.)

"Docmom" Cheese Curds.
They look nothing like the ones we buy around here :-)
They do squeak
They taste pretty good.  (I'd put them out for a party.)
.......but I'm going to keep practicing.

.....dr momi

What Not To Do



THIS is NOT a cheese press!

     I had this much piled on top of my 1st cheddar cheese try + 3 more iron frying pans, when it all crashed to the floor.  I screamed, the baby that was almost asleep in his swing started crying hysterically because I scared him so bad again, (s-o-r-r-y Remington!)

      ..........and this is what happened to my floor.



Not that my floor doesn't have a bazillion dog claw marks in it already.
I guess it just made it more "rustic".

      I have no idea if the cheese will work out without enough weight (we'll eat it young).  Not making cheddar cheese again until we make or buy a press :-)

Pizza

                                                           Rick said it was really good!  It was.

Mozzarella Cheese

      That's what I'm going to try to make.  Never made cheese before.  I was going to try to make cheese curds --- hence the mesophilic culture in the picture yesterday.  But, I went a little easier with some mozzarella.  I am impressed with how easy it really is.

I started with 1 gallon of organic, raw, whole milk.

I added 1/4 c. of fresh lemon juice.

And heated it all to 88 degrees....or 90 :-), stirring constantly.
(Don't do as I did -- make it 88 degrees :-)



This is a really bad picture.

It's hard to stir and take a picture

Then I added 1/4 tsp. of liquid rennet.  This I

bought at my wine supply store. (Which I guess

is also a cheese supply store :-)













And heated it to 105 degrees.
It didn't take long and I had "curds and whey".

I took out the curds and gently squeezed out more whey.
With all the whey back in the pot I heated it to 180 degrees.
And added 1/4 cup of non-iodized salt.

I made two balls of the curds....and one at a time put them in the
hot whey for a minute or two.  With gloved hands I stretched
the ball of cheese.  I did each one three times. (In retrospect I
would use 2 spoons to start each stretch --- it's really hot!)


....And I ended up with cheese!!!





Tomorrow we're havin' pizza!
(My husband already had a hotdish in the frig for tonight -- he's so good to me.)