INTERMISSION: A cheesemaking adventure

Well, as you can tell from the last post, the garden really got away from us towards the end -- not the least of the reasons being that the softball season got busier. I regret neglecting the plants, and hope to do better this year.

In the meantime, I've finally revisited my cheesemaking interest, largely thanks to a birthday gift from my Aunt and Uncle. They took me to a Cheesemaking 101 class this past weekend, held at The Hitchcock Center in Amherst. During the class we made, as a team, Farmhouse Cheddar.

I decided tonight to try to make a batch at home.

I started off with two gallons of Mapleline Farms whole milk, purchased from the health food grocery store around the corner. At first I bought two half gallons, in glass bottles. Mapleline is charging a $2.00 deposit on each bottle now, which was kind of shocking, in an effort to get people to actually return them. When I got back home and looked at the Farmhouse Cheddar recipe a little more closely, I realized I needed two gallons, so I went back and bought two more half gallons, this time in plastic.

Heating the milk, in the sink with hot water, up to 90 degrees.

Then you add the starter culture and wait a while. Then you add rennet, the coagulating agent, and wait a while.

Checking for a good break in the curd. This was a little soft, so I gave it another five minutes.

Cutting the curd into 1/2" cubes, or an approximation thereof.

Heating the curds to 100 degrees, and stirring and further cutting any remaining large chunks.

Here, I think I was at about 97 degrees. See how the whey and curds have separated very well, and the curds have gotten smaller and harder.

Draining the curds in a colander lined with cheesecloth.

Close-up of the curds.

The curds again, after squeezing out more whey.

Strung up for draining.

After draining, I dumped the curd mass in a stainless steel bowl ...

... then broke it all up into "walnut-size" pieces and added cheese salt.

Then, the curds get loaded into the cheese press (a present from Christmas 2006 that I used for the first time tonight ...).

The press is lined with cheesecloth and the curds are loaded.

Under pressure.

After the first press.

After the second press.

A close-up of the cheddar after the second press. I flipped it over again and put it back in the press with increased pressure.

And that's where it sits as I write this. All in all, I spent about four and a half hours working on this cheese. It went into the press for the third time at 11:30 pm and needs a whole bunch of hours.

I'll check back in with photos when it comes out of the press.