09/25/2026
Cheddar
Making this cheese is a bit different than the 3 other kinds we make. Mind you, they are all raw milk aged cheeses. The basics are: I get the gallons of cold milk into the vat heating it up from the hot water surrounding the milk. Each kind of cheese has a different recipe - temperatures, timing & cultures. In the long process just past the steps of adding cultures & rennet, there is stirring the curd slowly for a long time within the gallons of whey. Melanie typically does these earlier steps. Usually I take over at this point: I had been milking cows then cleaning up after all that in that other room. The next cheese making step is to push the loose curds to the back of the vat, collecting those pieces together then pressing them. They are still sitting within the thin fluid, the whey. This pressing under the whey is common to each recipe because you need to put the curds into plastic molds at some point. But then the 'cheddaring steps' are unique. You essentially handle the curd mass in large sections, flipping then stacking & flipping the sections several times using their own weight to press more whey out. These larger chunks end up having the texture of uncooked chicken breast. We tear these large chunks apart into oddly shaped pieces with a 'mill' (see the picture). You add salt to the broken up curds like a tossed salad, then fill up the heavy plastic molds with these broken up pieces for further extreme pressing. Gradually increasing the pressure until you have about 60psi, overnight! And, yes, that is butter oozing out of the molds.
