I’m posting this at Dave’s request.  He thinks, and I humbly concur, that the traditional cheddar I recently made is, in HIS words, perfect.  At least as far as appearance goes.  Now that is saying a lot, since it was HIS cheddar that inspired me to make just my 2nd traditional cheddar.  Anyway, I digress from the intent of this posting.  This is a challenge to all of you to try your own traditional cheddar.  Be forewarned though, you’ll need to set aside a goodly block of time in order to accomplish it - about 7 hours should do it, along with 36 hours of pressing.  We do feel, however, that the time and effort is very much worth it.  I think Nabil would agree, as it occurs to me that he has one that has been aging for about a year.  So, if you’re cheese-maker enough, let the cheddaring begin!  To inspire you, mine is included here:

Nice looking cheese!

I’m willing to give it a shot.  Is there a preferred recipe on the internet that I can follow?  I have Mesophilic and Thermophilic cultures but no ph meter.

LOL, would love to have a go but I want to get a perfect swiss first before i venture to a new breed of cheese.

Rich , really this wheel looks very good

dry it slowly for few days before waxing

Rich
what is the size of this wheel (diameter and hight)?

next time try to bandage it

Traditional Cheddar is the Queen of hard cheese

Bruce, can’t say about a preferred recipe.  The only one I have is from Ricki Carroll’s book.  And I have no pH meter either.

Nabil, its 6” X 3 1/4”.  Made from 4 Gal of raw milk.  And I chose to wax it already.  It was getting very dry and just starting to form slight cracks in the top surface.  My kitchen is showing 46% RH, but apparently it dried faster than anticipated.  Of course, the cheese was already quite dry when it came out of the press.

Regarding bandaging:  I’ve opened two bandaged cheeses so far, and I’m thinking that over a very long aging time some maintenance should be done on the bandage itself.  I understand Nabil has a bandaged cheddar that is a year old.  Have you done anything with it?  Like adding more lard/shortening as the months go by?  Also, there seems to be a lot of rind formation during aging this way, and I’m reluctant to lose any of my cheese.

Neil, maybe you should take a break from Swiss long enough to do a cheddar.  Let your frustration subside for a little while.  Besides, you have to wait quite a while on the Swiss anyway You could do a cheddar while the Swiss sweats.

Rich, yes of course u need to apply new lard layer every two to three months, u will feel it when it is dried

Green Cheese Maker - 26 February 2009 07:59 AM

Bruce, can’t say about a preferred recipe. The only one I have is from Ricki Carroll’s book. And I have no pH meter either.

Nabil, its 6” X 3 1/4”. Made from 4 Gal of raw milk. And I chose to wax it already. It was getting very dry and just starting to form slight cracks in the top surface. My kitchen is showing 46% RH, but apparently it dried faster than anticipated. Of course, the cheese was already quite dry when it came out of the press.

Regarding bandaging: I’ve opened two bandaged cheeses so far, and I’m thinking that over a very long aging time some maintenance should be done on the bandage itself. I understand Nabil has a bandaged cheddar that is a year old. Have you done anything with it? Like adding more lard/shortening as the months go by? Also, there seems to be a lot of rind formation during aging this way, and I’m reluctant to lose any of my cheese.

Neil, maybe you should take a break from Swiss long enough to do a cheddar. Let your frustration subside for a little while. Besides, you have to wait quite a while on the Swiss anyway You could do a cheddar while the Swiss sweats.

Rich,

It is recommended to cover the wheel the time you dry it with a wet handkerchief end flipping the wheel every 6-12 hours. BTW-Great looking wheel.

Alex

for the first three days i dry mine in a little open container to control humidity , then i wax

I just pulled this out of the press.  6” dia x 2.75” tall.  I got 3.25 lbs out of 3.5 gallons of whole milk.
The cheddaring process was interesting.  Kind of a pain to flip and rearrange the slices, but it was interesting to see the transformation in texture and smell.  I pressed overnight at about 50 lbs and then 24 hours at 160 lbs.

Very nice and dimply great job !

A great looking cheese, nice knitting on the surface.  The size indicates its compressed just about right.  Maybe more color, but that’s a personal choice.  Vermont cheddar is white.  Now, in a few months you’ll have a REAL treat!

OK. I’ve taken the challenge.
Here is a Leicester Red. A little lighter than I would really like but all in all quite good, I think. It weights out at 2lbs from 2 gallons of milk, 2 inches high. Big cheeses are not required, we only have two in the household.

An interesting point, I got this one to knit at only 30 lbs in a 6” mould. Whether it’s because of the second follower or not I won’t know without more experiments. Here http://www.rickandlynne.com/rick/go/forums/viewthread/712/

As an ex brit used to eating a variety of the ‘Shire’ cheeses I wonder if the label ‘hard’ cheese when applied to Cheddar is a misnomer. With the high pressure being applied by this forum to Cheddar, I’m wondering if it’s being treated so it ends up like a Parmesan?

Edit:- Not sure if I screwed up but the thumbnail doesn’t appear to be working.