Ingredients:
- 10 litres Gold Top Jersey whole milk
- 5ml vegetarian rennet
- DVI starter
Gold Top milk
Heating milk
Heat milk to 21C, add the DVI starter, and leave for 45 minutes.
Heat to 30C and add rennet diluted in plenty of boiled and cooled water.
Cutting the curd
Leave for around an hour until curd is ready, then cut into 1cm slices.
Scalded curd
Heat to 40C over the course of 45 minutes, stirring gently by hand.
Draining the curd
Drain the curd using cheesecloth or muslin, and leave to consolidate into a single mass.
Further draining
Once the majority of the whey has drained from the curd, place on a tray and leave to rest for half an hour.
Consolidated curd
Sliced consolidated curd
Curd stacking
Slice the consolidated curd into strips about a centimetre thick, and place on top of each other in cheesecloth and leave to drain for 15 minutes.
Re-stack the slices with the inner slices becoming the outer, and leave for another 15 minutes.
Gas holes after stacking
This stacking is to allow gas inside the curd to escape, as well as draining more whey from the curd.
Milling the curd
Slice the curd into small pieces and mix in some salt.
Packing the curd
Pack the curd into a cheesecloth-lined mould, and press lightly (around 7kg) for 1 hour.
After pressing
Increase pressure to around 14kg and leave for 24 hours.
After a hot bath
Dip in hot water at 66C for a minute to smooth the rind, then allow to dry at room temperature.
Wrap loosely in muslin and place in a cool (8-10C) dry place, and turn daily for 3+ months.
Still got over a month to wait to taste this one, but the smell is amazing already!
hi,
what a refreshing blog, your love of cheese making shows through!
cheese making is a wonderful art & really interesting. I mean even the slight nuances in the process affect the end product.
I might try and make some cheese now
keep up the good work.
shaaheen.
Hello handyface,
Great blog about cheese and great skills you’ve developed in making your own cheese!
Can you tell me why you dilute the vegetarian rennet in the cooked & cooled water? Can’t I just add 1 (or 2?) drop(s) of vegetarian liquid rennet into 1 liter milk? Can I use supermarket milk with a fat percentage of 3,8% or should I buy the milk directly at the farmers?
Greetings from Kees,
the Netherlands.
The rennet is diluted to ensure it mixes in well with the milk – adding a tiny bit of rennet directly to a huge amount of milk could cause localised acidification only, giving an inconsistent curd.
Supermarket milk is absolutely fine, as long as it’s not homogenised! Better quality milk will give a better quality cheese though!
Dear Handyface,
Thanks for your helpful comments. Today, I’ve tried making the ‘perfect curd’ from the perfect milk and it did work out very well! The curd is sliced into stacks and is draining this very moment, I’m preparing the cheespress now. I will keep you informed about the Dutch Cheddar.
Greetings from Kees from a sunny Netherlands.
Fantastic! What milk did you use? Have you got any photos?
Hello Handyface,
I’ve used milk from the supermarket with 3,8% fat and non-homogenised. They sell this kind of milk only in Germany (I live near the German border) but my intention is to buy milk from our local farmers for future projects. I’ve made some pictures from the cheese after removing them from the cheesepress and dipping them in hot water: they look, feel and smell (full cream butter) great!
Kind regards from Kees,
The Netherlands.
Hello Handyface,
I’ve got a question concerning the storage of cheddar. After wrapping the cheese in muslin, how about the formation of mould? Should I treat the cheese with an anti-mould coating or must I change the muslin after approx. 3/6/9 weeks or so? I would be very disappointed when my hopefully delicious 860 grams cheddars degenerate during the 3 months in my cooling storage.
Kind regards,
Kees.
Personally I love a bit of mould on my cheddar! If you’re not a fan, just change the muslin every few weeks as you suggested.
I have a number of cheeses (blue, white & washed) in the same area, and can’t really avoid cross-contamination.
Thanks for your reply Handyface. Last Friday, I discovered some mould on one of my cheddars. I’ve scraped the mould off with a knife and patted it lightly with wine vinegar, hope that will do the trick.