Cheddar-style cheese

A pressed cheese, cooked slowly and cheddared

Cheddar-style cheese is a pressed cheese whose curd is cooked slowly and then cheddared: the curd is kept warm in slabs that are turned and stacked for hours before being milled, salted and pressed. The documented method is Jim Wallace's Cheddar recipe for New England Cheesemaking Supply. It is written for 3 gallons of pasteurised milk, although the author usually makes 6 gallons of raw milk.

The culture name and dose, and the calcium chloride amount, were in an ingredient list that did not render in the text the dossier read. This page does not record them, and the culture line is left without a quantity.

Setting and cooking the curd

The milk is heated to 86 °F (30 °C). The source prefers a water bath, a pot set in a sink, and on a stove says to heat slowly and stir well. The culture is sprinkled on the surface, rehydrated for about two minutes, stirred in and held at 86 °F for 90 minutes. About 3/4 teaspoon of single-strength liquid rennet is added and the milk is left quiet for 45 minutes; it begins to thicken at about 15 to 20 minutes, and a clean break is checked before cutting.

The curd is cut to 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces, rested about five minutes and stirred slowly for 10 to 15 minutes, with the temperature brought back to 86 °F if it has cooled. It is then raised slowly to 102 °F (39 °C), about 3 to 5 °F every five minutes at the start, over about 30 minutes, and stirred for another 30 to 60 minutes until a grip test shows it is firm enough.

Cheddaring, milling and salting

The whey is removed to 1 to 2 inches above the curd mass, and the curds are drained into a holed pan set inside a solid pan, stirred for 10 to 15 minutes, then folded in cloth. The mass is kept at 85 to 90 °F (29 to 32 °C) and turned every 15 to 30 minutes for two to three hours. After about an hour the slab is cut in half and the halves are stacked under a board with about 8 lb of weight.

The slabs are milled into thumb- to walnut-sized pieces and salted at 2% of the fresh curd weight in three stages over 15 to 20 minutes. About 0.5% washes out, leaving about 1.5% in the cheese. The source gives no pH or acidity endpoints for the cheddaring or milling.

Pressing, drying and ageing

The cheese is pressed for an hour at 20 lb, another hour at 20 lb, four hours at 40 lb, then 24 hours at 50 to 75 lb, turned and rewrapped at each change. It is dried for a few days, then waxed or bandaged in cloth with lard. The source ages it at 52 to 56 °F (11 to 13 °C) and 80 to 85% moisture, turned weekly, for three to nine months or longer. These are the source's ageing figures and not a shelf-life statement.

Wax, late fermentation and the untested bath routes

The source warns that wax needs constant attention because it can easily reach its flash point, and that a too-wet curd can keep enough lactose to trigger late fermentation and leaking cheese. Penn State Extension states that ultra-pasteurised and UHT milk interfere with curd formation and does not recommend raw milk for home cheesemaking, so the control this page carries is pasteurised milk.

Untested adaptation: the 86 to 102 °F stages in a rim-supported inner pot in a brewer bath, with the bath keeping the curd at 85 to 90 °F during cheddaring. The other proposed route, direct low-power kettle heating with stirring before the set, is also untested. Neither is the documented method above.

What the sources leave open

Culture name and dose: In an ingredient list that did not render; a search snippet naming C101 was not verified..

Calcium chloride amount: Not in the rendered text..

PH or acidity endpoints: The page gives none for cheddaring or milling..