White Cheddar -- Farmhouse Style

Cheddar: An American Favorite!

Cheddar cheese is one of those favorites that is used in so much of American cooking that we take it for granted, I think.  It's relatively inexpensive at the grocery store, so making it at home from scratch may not be something most people would want to do. It's not cost effective (about $10.00-12.00 for a 2 lb. wheel) and takes a couple of days to have a cheese wheel ready to put away for ripening. Then there's the wait: 1 month to 30 months.

Even here in Arkansas, I can buy Tillamook cheese for under $9.00 for a 2 lb. loaf. (Tillamook is from my home state of Oregon, on the coast.) I've tried many, many different brands of cheddar cheese and Tillamook is, by far, my absolute favorite. In Oregon, you can purchase several different types of this brand of cheese. From mild, medium, sharp and Special Reserve, to their Jack and Colby. It's wonderful cheese. But...

I wanted to make my own cheddar, shooting for something that would taste similar to Tillamook's medium cheddar cheese.

I know, I know. The question of WHY struck me too, when it's cheaper and no work is required to go to the grocery store and just BUY the stuff. Well...I guess I'm just a curious George and wanted to give it a shot. 
Yesterday, I did.

A few weeks ago I bought a book called Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Karlin (Ten Speed Press) and it has some dynamite recipes with very clear, very well defined directions. But I couldn't find a recipe that was labeled as a plain ol' cheddar! I went to the internet...the great oracle of modern-day wisdom (laughter here). I found a recipe at GRIT Magazine online. GRIT has been around a LONG time. My dad used to read it back in the 1940's, when he was a kid.

I gathered my ingredients: 

• 2 gallons pasteurized cow's milk (not supposed to be homogenized; unfortunately anything else was not available for me at this time--I used slightly more starter to boost its culture)
• 1/2 teaspoon mesophilic starter (I used a Farmhouse Blend: MA4001 with Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis; Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris; Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis; Streptococcus thermophilus.)
• Rennet (GRIT said to use 1 teaspoon--that's a LOT for 2 gallons of milk...I used about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon. Many rennets are super-strength and too much rennet will make your cheese rubbery.) diluted in 1/4 cup DISTILLED or WELL water
• 1/4 teaspoon calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cup DISTILLED water (tap water usually has chlorine unless you have well water. Chlorine kills the ripening somewhat. Ripening is what gives each cheese its particular flavor so you don't want to risk that! Also, GRIT's recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon calcium chloride, but I've never used that much for 2 gallons of milk.)
• 1-2 tablespoons NON-IODIZED salt. I use sea salt.

I've been using a 3 gallon, heavy-duty stainless steel pot for my cheese making thus far but we discovered 3 very thick, very old pickle crocks downstairs in the basement. Two of them were 3 gallon size. I'd read that crockery-cheese is ideal because the clay retains heat much longer than anything else and is non-reactive (never use aluminum or copper--they'll ruin your cheese). Because cheese is created at rather low temperatures, I realized that keeping the crock warm enough (most cheese making never gets above 100 degrees F.) by setting it in the kitchen sink filled with hot water just might work. I've had a dickens of a time keeping my stainless pot at the exact correct temperature. I've used a heating pad, water bath, towels...and they work, but I thought it had to be easier...so I did the crock.

Whoa.

Awesome. I stopped up the sink (which I'd scoured thoroughly and completely disinfected--I wouldn't want any secondary bacteria to get into my milk) and set that big crock in it. Then I filled it with hot tap water and let the milk (which I'd put into the crock) begin to slowly rise in temp. When it got to 70°F, I added the starter, stirring slowly. I left the crock in the hot water (the water was about 110°) until it got to the recipe's recommended 85°. Then I took the crock out, set it on a big bath towel on the counter and wrapped another big towel around it to help it maintain temp. I thought it would lose heat--just slower than the stainless steel. To my shock and amazement, it didn't lose so much as 1/10th of a degree (I use a digital thermometer) over the 1 hour I let it ripen! 

I was so excited about that. I've had to really fight to maintain exacting temperature with my fancy-dancy $100.00 stainless pot. I did scrub out this crock thoroughly. I mean THOROUGHLY. And then I used a solution of 1 gallon water to 2 tablespoons of bleach to mist the crock inside and out, letting it completely dry (overnight) before using. I'm a little ridiculous about the disinfecting but I'd rather be safe than sick. These crocks were used maybe once or twice, twenty years ago or so, so I don't think any residual pickle-funk was in existence. The crocks are a good 3/4 of an inch thick and have a heavy, non-lead based glaze (food-grade) inside and out. 

The next step, after the hour of ripening was complete, was to add the diluted calcium chloride, stir well, then add the diluted rennet, also stirring well (30 seconds or so for each). Then I had to keep the crock at 85° for another hour to let the rennet do its work of coagulating the milk into a jello-ish solid. Then I took a long knife and cut the now firm curd into 1/2 inch cubes. Sometimes the curds require that full hour. Some recipes say 30-45 minutes, but if you can't get a clean, sharp break (where your curds are sharply-edged after cutting), just wait another 15 minutes and try again.

After cutting my curds, the temp had to be raised to 100°. I had prepared a large water-bath canner with hot water (over 140°) to use in getting my crock's contents up to that temp, so I put the crock back into the sink and poured hot water into the sink (NOT THE CROCK!) surrounding the crock with hot water. Keeping very careful watch, I began to raise the temp of my cut curds to the requisite 100°, taking the crock out of the hot water and setting it on its big towel on the counter once I hit the correct temp. While it was getting to that correct temp, I stirred the curds once about every 5 minutes to keep them from clumping together. It took about 30 minutes or so to get to 100°.

As per the instructions, I removed the curds from the whey when it got to temp and drained them in a cheesecloth-lined colander. I let it drain for 10 minutes or so. While it was draining into a big bowl, I took the crock with its remaining whey and added enough hot water to fill it 1/2 full. I set the crock back into the hot water and got the temp back up to 100° (it had dropped a couple degrees while I was removing the curds) and then turned the clump of curds out onto a disinfected, dry cutting board. Using a sharp (also disinfected) bread knife, I sliced the clump of curds into 1/2 inch slices, then cut those slices lengthwise (they looked a lot like French fries). 

I placed them back into a heavy stainless colander (of a size that could rest on the rim of the crock and not fall in) and covered it with the big glass lid (which I'd been using to cover the crock during the heating, ripening, etc., stages). I kept the whey water at 100° to 102° for about 90 minutes; the steam from it keeping the curds in the colander above it warm. It kind of melts into a slab. I turned the slab 2 times during the 90 minute wait. Then I removed the slab, carefully crumbled it into about 1/2 to 3/4 inch chunks and placed them in a bowl. I sprinkled the 2 tablespoons of salt over the cheddared curds, using gloved hands to mix it carefully and gently together. 

I had a damp, fine cheesecloth ready and used it to line an 8" tomme mould. Then, working fairly quickly (don't want the curds to get too cold), and still using the protective gloves, I packed the curds snugly into the mould, wrapping the excess cheesecloth over the curds (dressing it, essentially). Then I put it into the press we made and put about 12 lbs of weight on it.

The recipe from GRIT doesn't specify how much weight to use. I did a bunch of searching online and discovered that up to 50 lbs is used for cheddar! Wow, that seemed like a lot...

After 15 minutes, I removed the weight (as per instructed) and tried to flip the cheese but it was semi-loose and not a snugly packed (like so many other cheeses I'd made) wheel yet. So I did more research and found a similar recipe that used 20 lbs weight at the beginning, increasing to 40 lbs for the second part, up to the 50 lbs for the last, 24 hour pressing. I increased my weight to 20 lbs and went another 15 minutes. It was better, much better, but I was beginning to have doubts. Soooo.... I added another 15 lbs  for a total of 35 lbs for the next 30 minutes. Way better, but still kinda not smooched into a tight cheddar-looking loaf. Not knowing quite what to do to find 50 lbs of weight that would fit atop my relatively small press, I started thinking. I needed something very heavy but small. I went down to the basement (our home's repository of interesting and old stuff) and found a box that contained one very heavy hunk of tow-chain, another smaller hunk of slightly smaller chain and a couple of tire chains. I put them into a 1.25-gallon ice cream bucket (and yeah they fit if I heaped them above the rim). I spied an old steel wood-splitting maul and added that for good measure. 

When I weighed it... voila! It was about 48 lbs total, and with the 2 lb top of the press equalled--yes. 50 lbs. Small, heavy, and even weight. I was so excited to have this that I almost screeched. My husband just shook his head and laughed at me but...yay!!

So I put it on the press and waited about 3 hours to check it. Yes...the curds were becoming one fantastic, solid mass. The recipe from GRIT says to leave it pressing for 36 hours, turning once every 12 hours. So, this morning at about 8:30 a.m., 12 hours after applying the 50 lbs weight, I checked it. Yes, yes, yes!! I have an 8 inch wheel of white cheddar! I flaked off a tiny piece of an edge while turning it and redressing it for its next 12 hours and tasted that little piece. Oh my. It tastes like a very fine, mild cheddar already!

I think I'll probably not leave it for the full 36 hours, instead leaving it just 24. I suppose it depends on what I find at 8:30 tonight when I check it. I do think that the time exposed to room temp in the press does help to cure and age it, creating a process in the curd of breaking down to create the "paste" that is cheese with a familiar flavor. 

Updated pictures of the finished product coming soon!

I'm still learning but so far it's been great fun.

Thus far I've made, in order:

1. Irish Cheddar
2.  Crescenza 
3. American Brick Cheddar
4. Alpine Tomme 
5. Havarti
6. White Cheddar

I've also been making yogurt for a couple months and it is absolutely fantastic. I'll never go back to store-bought yogurt. It is very inexpensive to make at home and tastes better than I ever imagined.

Next cheese: undecided!