I've been working on sanitation. For this last batch of Farmhouse Cheddar, I put thru the dishwasher on "sanitize" anything that could go into the dishwasher, boiled anything that was stainless but couldn't be dishwashed, and steamed my thermometers, cheesecloth, and wood follower. I pulled my hair back, and I washed my hands every time I was about to do a new step. Then as I was removing the cheese from the press to rewrap it, I realized I'd set the follower down on my counter. I'd earlier wiped the counter with lysol, but it did make me wonder just how perfectly sanitary we can be in a home kitchen. And at what point we start to get diminishing marginal returns from taking yet another step in sanitation. I could, for instance, have boiled a tray to use to unwrap/rewrap my cheese so that I'd be setting the follower on a sanitized surface.
And of course, every single cheese I've ever made, I've found an animal hair pressed into the surface when unwrapping after one of the pressings. Every single one. I pull it out and rewrap the cheese, but honestly, with two cats and a dog who spend considerable time underfoot in my kitchen, is it really likely I'll ever actually have a completely sanitary process?