Say Cheese

Last year for Christmas I sent my husband an email containing hyperlinks to several 'exact' items I was hoping to see under the Christmas tree.

Imagine my surprise when he gave me a cheese making book and starter kit.

Not that this was a bad idea. It just wasn't my idea. So I put it on the back burner and just let it simmer while I trained for a Spring marathon and survived the hottest summer on record in Arkansas.

As summer came to an end (as did my running...apparently), Meg asked me when we were giong to try to make cheese. I started to flip through the cheese book and think about giving it a try. Of course, all of the cultures he'd purchased in December had expired. So, after a few months of research, a few small purchases and making TWO cheese presses, we finally made cheese!

Now the photos in this post are actually the second cheese: Jalapeno Gouda, made Saturday. The first cheese was Cheddar. We made the mistake of believing we could do it in 4 hours and we started Wed night at 8pm. We didn't finish until 3am! 7. hour. cheese. It'd better be good.

I won't [not even for a second] lead you to believe that if I print a recipe below, you can make cheese this week. Like I said, it was a lot of time and detail to acquire the right equipment, ingredients, etc. I will just give a short description of each picture, so you can decide if you'd even be interested in playing with cheese. And don't even get me started on the daily flipping and aging process. This is kind of like having pets. I need a chart to keep them straight!

4 gallons of whole milk to start. Local milk is best, because it's fresher and not quite as homogenized as what you'd find in the grocery store.


My dairy thermometer doesn't have a clip. I fashioned this from a twist tie and a rubberband. It totally worked!

There are basically two types of cultures. Mesophilic is used for soft cheese like cheddar, gouda, jack; and thermophilic is used for hard cheeses, such as romano, parmesan, swiss, etc.

First thing you add to the milk is calcium chloride. This corrects for the fact that the milk has been homogenized. Homogenization breaks up all the fats into small pieces, which makes it harder for the curds to come together. Then, rennet is added to cause coagulation to occur.

It's tricky to see in this picture, but the milk has gelled together like yogurt and has been cut into 1/2" cubes all the way to the bottom of the pot (vertically).

In this picture, the curd has also been cut every half inch (horizontally). Then it sits for 5 minutes. This is 2.5 hours into the process, as the milk must be heated very slowly to get to this point.

This is after the curds have been stirred. They whey is separating from the curd.

One thing that was unique to gouda (compared to cheddar) is that there are two times you remove a certain amount of the whey and then replace it with the same volume of water at a specific temperature. The first time was 10% and this picture is when I removed 30%.

After adding the hot water to bring the temp up to 98 degrees, it sits for 10 minutes and the curds start to settle at the bottom of the pot. Then you scoop out the whey until you reach the curd level.

Curds are then placed into a strainer to drain off whey. This is where I mixed in the jalapeno to make it a pepper cheese. The jalapenos were boiled for 10 minutes in water, then cooled. The entire contents of jalapeno and water were poured over the curd, then mixed in.

The cheese goes into the press and starts out with very low pressure (10 lbs here).

After 30 minutes the cheese is removed from the press, flipped over and redressed with the cheesecloth (which helps draw moisture from the cheese).

Then it goes back in the press. I increased the weight to 20 lbs for an hour, then finally to 40 pounds.

Another difference between cheddar and gouda is that cheddar gets salted before going in the press. Gouda does not get salted. Rather, after it presses for 12 hours, it goes into a brine for 12 hours.

Following the brine, it dries at room temperature for 2 - 3 days until dry to to touch, but clammy.

The last step is waxing, which I have not yet done with the gouda. This cheese took 4 hours from start to finish. Much improvement after 7 hour Cheddar! I have a feeling this will get easier with practice. The gouda will be ready to eat in as little as 6 weeks, while the cheddar will take a minimum of 3 months for mild...as long as 12 months for sharp. I can't wait to try these!

I guess it's time for me to thank my husband for my Christmas present, huh?