Homemade Farmhouse Raw Cheddar Cheese

Recipe Description:

Here is a straight-forward method for making a simple raw cheddar cheese from our own raw goat milk! Please don’t be afraid. After you’ve tried this a time or two, it will be easy. 🙂 You could use raw cow’s milk if that’s what you have.

Prep Time: 4 Hours

Cook Time: 1 Hours

Servings: 32

Difficulty: Difficult

Recipe Ingredients:

2 gallons raw whole goat milk or raw cow milk

1/4 teaspoon mesophyllic cheese starter

1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet

2 Tablespoons sea salt

Recipe Instructions:

Pour milk into large heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot that will give you a little room for stirring.

Heat milk gently to 90 degrees F. Remove from heat.

Mix the mesophyllic starter into a little bit of cool water and then stir it well into the milk. Put on the lid and let the milk sit for 45 minutes.

Mix the rennet into 1/4 cup cool water. Bring the milk back up to 90 degrees F. and remove from heat again. Stir the diluted rennet into the milk for a few minutes. Put the lid back on and let it sit for 30 more minutes, or until when you insert your finger in the milk you get a "clean break" when you pull it out.

Cut the curd with a long sharp knife into 1/4 inch cubes. Stir gently with your hand, cutting the larger pieces into smaller pieces for 15 minutes.

Heat the curds to 100 degrees F, increasing the temperature no more than two degrees every 5 minutes. This should take about half an hour or so. Stir gently, with your hand, often, to keep the curds from clumping together.

Place the pan in a sink full of 100 degree F. water, covered, and let it sit for another 30 minutes, stirring it with your hand several times.

Drain off and save the whey. Pour the curds into a large colander lined with some good quality cheese cloth - not the cheap stuff you buy at a fabric store. I buy mine online.

Put the curds into a large bowl and gently, but thoroughly stir in the 2 Tablespoons sea salt.

Line your cheese press with cheese cloth and put the salted curds in there. Fold the cheese cloth over the top, add the follower and press for 10 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. Invert the cheese press container and press from the other end at 30 pounds of pressure for another 10 minutes.

Remove from press, "dress" the cheese with fresh cheese cloth cut to fit - which will be two little round pieces for the ends and 1 long strip to go around the cheese. Alternately, you can use a large square of the reusable cheesecloth shown on my blog. Return to press at 50 pounds of pressure until the next morning.

Take the cheese out of the press and carefully remove the cheesecloth dressing. Trim off any bits that are sticking out along an edge at the top or bottom of your cheese wheel.

Let the cheese dry in the refrigerator. Let it dry there, on a dish towel, for about 3 days, until it is good and dry. Be sure to turn it over at least a couple of times a day as it dries.

Dip it, twice, in melted cheese wax, return it to the fridge to age for 1 to 2 months, turning it occasionally. I do not have a proper cheese aging room, and the fridge seems to work just fine.

Author: loves2spin

I am a happily married woman (42 years), mother of 6 and grandmother of 14. I am interested in many things, and love teaching what I know. I have an in-home sewing business, am an avid gardener and teach piano lessons..and I'm a Mormon. View all posts by loves2spin

4 thoughts on “Homemade Farmhouse Raw Cheddar Cheese”

Jeannette Freeman says:

December 27, 2011 at 11:53 am

How do I decide what kind of mesophyllic starter to use? I was looking at the Cultures for Health website and they have a few different kinds.

1. loves2spin says:
  
  December 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm
  
  I would assume that any of them would work but the flavor would vary. The one that I currently have is: MA11. Good luck and if you make cheese, I would love to hear about it!
  
  1. Jeannette Freeman says:
    
    December 28, 2011 at 11:47 am
    
    OK. Thanks! It’s on my list to do, may take awhile to get to it though.
    
Margaret Cunningham says:

May 22, 2016 at 10:48 am

I have mw3 culture so i am hoping that will work, but with regard to the liquid rennet…what is the equivalent in tablet form please?

Recipe Description:

Recipe Ingredients:

Recipe Instructions:

Author: loves2spin

4 thoughts on “Homemade Farmhouse Raw Cheddar Cheese”

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