Since I'm a cheesemaker, I think it's time I post something about cheese. Cheese that I've made. So let's talk Cheddar! I visited a friend in London, England back in October and though I focused mainly on spending time with my dear friend Daneil, I also tasted lots and lots of cheeses. One of my favorite cheeses is Montgomery's Cheddar. It's sharp and the cheddar taste cuts right to your tastebuds. It's crumbly...but not dry. If you see some in a cheese shop, you should ask for a taste and definitely take a little home with you.
The cheddar I make is nothing like Montgomery's, but I'm learning more each time I make it. Normally, we always heat treat (pasteurize) our milk before starting the cheese-make, but a few weeks ago we went raw! I made my first raw milk cheese and it felt oh so good!
Cheddar is a cooked-curd cheese meaning that once the curds have separated from the whey, they are stirred and slowly cooked in the whey. After the right temperature and pH is reached, the whey is drained and the process of "cheddaring" begins.
This is a picture of the curds in the vat before the whey has been drained.
Cheddaring is a process in cheesemaking. After the whey is drained out of the vat, all you are left with is a big pile of curds that are still holding on to some whey. These curds clump and melt together into one mass of curd. If I tried to make a cheese out of this curd without cheddaring, it would probably make a rather bland cheese because the pH is still high (less acidic). What we want to do is give the curds some time in a nice warm environment to let the pH drop (more acidic) and let more whey drain out.
So I separate the pile of curds into 2 piles with a trench down the middle. This allows more whey to drain out while the curds are cheddaring. After 15 minutes, I flip both of the piles of curds which have settled and sort of melted down into 2 slabs of curds. After another 15 minutes I cut each slab in half and stack the halves on top of one another. Every 15 minutes I come back and check on the curds and flip the slabs. If the slabs get too flat, I cut them again and re-stack. Meanwhile, the pH is dropping, whey is draining out of the curds and the curd itself is getting a more elastic look and feel. It's soft and the individual curds are almost impossible to see.
This is a picture of the slabs at the bottom of the vat during the cheddaring process.
When the pH is good and I'm happy with how the slabs look, I pull out my trusty french-fry potato slicer thingy and I mill the slabs of curd through it. I place all the curds in a big bowl and salt them and mix them. After letting them rest for about 15 minutes, I scoop up the curds and place them into the forms where they will be pressed into wheels of cheese overnight.
Ta Da! Cheddarific!
This is our cheese press with 3 wheels of cheese pressing.
So how does it work?