Cheese Making

This winter, as a compliment to our plans for a Pizza Garden, we started to learn to make cheese. It is a tricky process because most cheese is supposed to age for a minimum of 60 days, a time frame that makes it hard to learn from your mistakes! We have gotten pretty good at making Havarti, but some say it tastes more like Cheddar.

1) Collect 4 gallons of milk and warm it in a large pot to 90 degrees. Add the culture and let it ripen for 30 minutes.

Add the cheese culture to the warm milk

2) Stir in the rennet and let the milk sit for another 30 minutes. Test for a clean break, then you know the curd has formed and it is ready to cut into cubes. Test for a clean break

3) Cut the curd into cubes. Wait 5 minutes. Drain off a gallon of the weigh, and let sit for another 5 minutes.

Cut the curd into cubes as evenly as possible

4) Cook the curds by slowly adding ½ gallon of hot water, (160 degrees). Stir constantly while adding the water. Take 5-10 minutes to add the water, allowing the temperature to raise very gradually. When the temperature stabilizes at 100 degrees stir in ¼ cup of salt. Keep the curds at 100 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the curds from matting. (Simply add a little more hot water if the temperature drops).

stir the curds very gently while adding the hot water

5) Drain the curds in a colander.

Drain the curds into a colander

6) Put the curds into a cheese press. (If you don’t have a press, wrap the curd in cheese cloth, place them in a colunder, then set a weight on top). (Pictures 6, 8 & 9 cheese press)