Here it is, the Farmers Cheddar wheel on the board to dry and make it's rind before it gets waxed. This cheese just needs a 30 day cure time so I thought it would be a quick cheese to test out. When I pulled it from the cheese press, it had a tiny bit on top and bottom that had squeezed out of the mold. I trimmed it off and sample tasted the cheese. It tastes like american cheese! I guess I did it at least close to right! I'll have to work on cutting the curd better for a smoother wheel.
I got my cheese press from Steve Shapson over at cheese maker.com. He puts presses up for auction on eBay for website advertisement at a discount. I purchased my recipe book-Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll and ingredients from his as well. A nice site full of great stuff about cheese.
Stay safe and keep prepping!
Posts
Hey...looks good enough to eat! Good work, my friend!
ReplyDeleteThe cheese looks fantastic. I have always wanted to try doing my own but haven't had the materials or time to try yet. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Looking good and inspirational to me! Gotta hand it to you, MM, you rock.
ReplyDeleteDo you wax this cheese? Or does it make its own rind?
ReplyDeleteActually, this recipe calls for both a rind and the wax. The wheel sits on a board for 2 to 5 days depending on temperature and humidity to form a rind then 2 layers of wax and in the cave for 30 days. This particular wheel never made it to the wax, the neighbor and I ate it this evening!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping in!
What do you use as wax? I've had a problem with it cracking and the cheese drying out.
ReplyDeleteHello Ian, parafin/Gulf Wax cracks, it's just not pliable enough. Cheese wax is what you want, since I haven't a clue why it works like it does, I won't try to explain it. It's a soft wax that cools on the cheese and it doesn't dry out or crack off and you can rinse it off and use it over and over. I buy it by the lb from thecheesemaker.com. You have to use real fiber brushes with it too, it melts the plastic bristled ones.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great information!
ReplyDelete