How to Make Cheddar Cheese

Cheddar Cheese1 How to Make Cheddar Cheese Those who love cheese would vouch for the taste that Cheddar cheese can add to recipes. The Cheddar cheese was prepared initially in an English village with the same name. But this type of cheese became so popular that it has been loved by people around the world. The cheddar cheese is pale yellow to orange in color. It has a semi hard consistence and gives a flaky acidic taste. It has a strong aroma. If the cheddar cheese is made properly with all hygiene measures in place and proper storage methods, it can last for a few days to even weeks. The cheddar cheese can be used as an ingredient to many recipes and is mostly loved by people of all ages. You can prepare some dishes solely based on the Cheddar cheese as well like the cheese sticks.

To make the cheddar cheese you would need pasteurized milk. This is because you would have milk that is free from any sort of contaminating bacteria and enzymes.

Ingredients and Appliances

Milk
Mesophilic starter culture
Rennet
Salt
A double boiler or one large pot and one smaller one to keep the milk warm in hot water
Cheesecloth
Strainer

Steps to make the cheddar Cheese

Heat milk using the double boiler or let it warm. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can fill a larger pot with warm water and place the smaller pot inside and pour milk onto the smaller pot. This way you can warm the milk easily.
Add the mesophilic starter culture, take about one oz of it for a gallon of milk. You must mix it thoroughly well with a whisk. This way you can ensure that the culture has mixed evenly with the milk. You can use a whisk if you not sure of it. Some people even stir with a spoon or wooden spatula.
Leave the milk this way for a little more than one hour. By this time, the milk would have gotten the right culture you need to get the best quality Cheddar cheese.
Now take the Rennet and dissolve it into half cup water. Once it is dissolved completely, you need to slowly add the mixture onto the milk. When you pour it with one hand, you can stir the milk continuously with a whisk. Once you have added the Rennet completely you need to stir more for about 5 minutes to get the right mixture.
Again leave the milk and let it sit for about 2 hours without any disturbance. After two hours you can see a firm curd setting with the water separating from the curd.
You can take the curd and cut them into smaller cubes once it is thoroughly set. You can use a palette knife to cut the curd.
You can now rise the temperature while you stir it continuously. When you stir, you can see the curd settle to the bottom of the pot.
Now take out the pot and drain the extra liquid in it.
Add salt and use a cheese cloth to take out extra liquid that might be remaining in the cheese.
Press cheese on a mould and keep it in the same manner for some time to get the rightly done Cheddar cheese.
You can follow the traditional method of scalding and pitching or use the above steps to get tasty cheddar cheese.