Farmhouse Cheddar update 1

This Is my first blog after making Farmhouse Cheddar. 

This cheese is a fairly easy cheese to make. It took me 

probably 5 hours to pour, stir cut and mill the cheese, until it was pressed in my makeshift cheese press, for 12 hours.

When making it I stuck fairly closely to the recipe; except that I could not find the rennet that came with my cheese kit, instead I used a product that was in our pantry "Junket". This was a little hard because I needed mL and it was in tablets, secondly, once I got what I thought was the right amount, but after leaving it for 45 mins, and then a further 15mins the milk had not turned into curds, at this point I was starting to worry, and I was afraid that the reaction would happen, so I left the Milk in the incubator over night and when I opened it in the morning I found that it had finally set properly and was ready to be cut.


After cutting the curds I cooked them at 38C in the incubator. this process took longer than I thought it would and  longer then  the recipe said (Depends how much hot water you put in the incubator)

Next I poured the mixture into a butter muslin lined colander and stir it slowly as it began to drain. Now the recipe said to tie up the corners and let it hang for 4-5 hours, but I just left it in the lined colander for 24 hours and it worked the same

After packing a mould with the remaining mixture, I began pressing. The only problem was that I did not have enough room on my makeshift press to weigh it down with 20Kg, so I instead pressed it at 15Kg. This was almost the same only slightly moister

What things worked well?
- Cutting the curd
- It drained from the colander the way it should
- The vat fitted in the microwave

- There was just the right amount to fit into the mould

What didn't work so well:
- My rennet took longer then it should to set the curds
- The cheese was moister then it should be and wasn't completely drained

Time it took to make:
- 5 Hours

Time left on project:
- 15 hours