Cheese Type & Number: Stirred-curd Cheddar, #11

Description: An “easier” cheddar than traditional.

Source of Recipe: Ricki Carrol

Date: 2/8/2004

Warming the Milk: 2 gallons of whole Longmont Dairy cow milk, heated to 90

We made our first stirred curd cheddar on Friday/Saturday, and it is a thing of beauty! This is the first cheese that we have colored, and I was rather surprised that the 4 drops of coloring seemed to make no difference to the shade of the curds. I added 2 more drops, and that too seemed to make no appreciable difference. The pressing, redressing, and drying process all went well (thanks for such easy to follow directions). To our amazement, when removing from the press on Saturday evening, we found that we had a gorgeous yellow cheese! It dried very quickly, and we were able to wax late Monday morning.

Our biggest problem is that we must now wait until the Fall to taste!! We did use ‘raw’ milk without pasteurization, so will wait the longest time before tasting!

Thanks for the recipe - Simon and Wendy

Wendy & Simon,

Did you use the calcium chloride? It might not have been necessary if you used raw milk. It will be interesting to see the texture of the cheese—waiting is a pain, isn’t it! If you find the cheese is too dry or rubbery, then don’t use CaCl with raw milk.

Be sure to wait 60 days, but you are right 6 months or so will give you a much better cheese.

The food coloring got me once too! 4 drops just doesn’t seem to be enough. As your cheese ages, it will continue to darken in color.

Keep me informed!

Rick

Hi Rick,

Yes - we did omit the CaCl, since we had read in the New England Cheesemaking brochure that came with our original ‘Hard Cheese’ kit that it wasn’t necessary for raw milk. It has now been black waxed, so come September/October we shall be eager to see how dark it is!

We were watching your video clips, and were most amused to hear a couple of meows in the background!!

Regards, Simon and Wendy

Yeah, that was eBay complaining about something.

Cut into this cheese on 10/26/2004—after letting it age 8 months. It is very good. A nice, very light orange color from the coloring we added. It is dense, yet moist. It have a very nice cheddar flavor. Wouldn’t do anything different next time—and there will be a next time!