Here is Ricki Carrol’s recipe
The basic cheddar recipe is 2 gallons of milk but I suggest 3 Gal for 1 pack of our C101 culture to keep form making an over acid and crumbly cheese. If using raw milk I find that 1 pack will do for 4 gallons.(so I will use 4 gallons)
- Heat to 86F. (OK, straight from the cow, no problem)
- Add 1 pack C-101 culture and let set for 45-60 min. (into this for 1 hour so far, not counting milking the cows)
- Add 1/2 tsp rennet. let set 45 min @86F.
- Cut curds to 1/4-3/8″ (two hours)
- Then stir while slowly raising heat over 30 min to 102F. Maintain 102F and continue to stir for another 30 min more. Allow curds to settle under the whey for 20-30 min. (3.5 hours)
- Pour off whey and curds into a cloth lined colander. Place the colander and curds back into the empty pot and place the pot into a sink of 95-100F water to keep warm. Turn this curd mass at 15 min intervals for 2 hrs (at the 1 hr point (4 hours) cut the mass in half and stack the 2 halves). This is the CHEDDARING phase (5 hours)
- Break this curd mass into 1/2-3/4″ pieces
- Add salt (use 2% of the curd weight in salt ). Add the salt in 3 phases allowing the salt to dissolve between additions. Stir often enough to keep from matting and this salting should take 30 min. (5.5 hours)
- Place cheese curds in cloth lined mold and press at 10 lbs for 15 min unwrap cheese from cloth, turn over, and re-wrap placing back in mold
- Press at the schedule below and unwrap, turn cheese and re-wrap between stages
- 12 lbs. for 30 min. (6.5 hours)
- 20 lbs. for 1 hr. (7.75 hours)
- 50 lbs. for 4 hrs. (12 hours to this point)
- 50 lbs. again for another 24 hrs. (by this stage the cheese can be left for a day and this is a LOT of weight)
NOTE: If the cheese has not consolidated well enough by this point, then increase time up to another 24 hrs. The weight can also be increased u to 100lbs. if needed.
If still not consolidated the cheese curds were too dry so in the next batch do less stirring perhaps for less time. Also cutting the curds larger will make a moister cheese.
- You may either Dry cheese for 1-3 days and wax OR you may follow my traditional bandaging as shown below. (because I have no cave, I will wax)
- Age for 3-9 months depending on cheese moisture. The drier the cheese, the longer it can be aged. (once waxed it can be stored in the veggie crisper of my fridge or in a stockpot in the cooler)
Copeland Family Farms 