There are almost 370 varieties of cheese, clearly mentioning all would not be possible. However, we have narrowed down to the most asked about. So, before delving into how to make cheese, we request you to give us your queries or the cheese you want to know about and we will specially do a section for you! I hope that brings a smile onto your face, doesn’t it? Now straight to cheese making. We will start from Cheddar, and this recipe will make 1/2 kg of cheese.
Cheddar Cheese
Ingredients:
Full Cream milk: 5 litres
Cream: 1 litre
Starter, liquid or dry: 5ml (alternatively you can use live yoghurt)
Rennet: 3ml
Salt: 10g
Method:
Do not be intimidated because it will really be worth it.
Pateurize: Heat the milk to destroy unwanted bacteria. Make it lukewarm before adding your starter. The temp of the milk when cooled should be 21 degree centigrade.
Starter: Stir in the starter and leave the milk in a warm place, covered about an hour or so to acidify. Do not let it go beyond an hour as we do not want the cheese to be dry and crumbly.
Rennet: Heat the milk up to 30 degree centigrade. Mix Rennet in two tsp of boiled and cooled water and stir it in. Stir it to stop cream formation on top and leave it to set.
Setting: Touch and see whether the milk is set: it should be soft but also shouldn’t leave a milk stain on the back of your finger.
Cut: This is done to release the liquid whey. Cut down the curd in all possible ways into pea sized bits and stir.
Scalding: Raise the temperature of the mixture to 38 degree centigrade and keep it for 30 to 40 minutes, occasionally stirring by hand.
Pitching: Give the whey a final circular stir and let it rest till liquid has settled.
Run the whey: In a sterilized cloth ladle out the whey and let the whey drain away. 15 minutes should be enough.
Stack: Untie the curd, cut it into four slices and place on top of the other and cover with a cloth. After 15 minutes repeat the process by turning the outer layer in and inner layers out. You need to repeat the process for several times.
Milling: Break down he curd into pea sized pieces
Salting: Sprinkle 10 gm salt on the milled curds and roll then gently without breaking further
Moulding: Line the cheese with previously boiled cheesecloth, fold the top and keep it ready to pressing.
Pressing: Place a wooden follower on top of the curd mould. This is done to extract all the whey and make it compact. Also, you need to gradually increase the pressure. Give it a day and turn the cheese in the mould and repeat the process.
Drying: Remove the cheese from the cloth and dip in hot water. Dry for a day or two till rind forms.
Sealing: Once dried, brush it on with some melted cheese wax and mature
Maturing: Small cheeses will take about a month.