Some of the curds are about 1/2" some smaller. That's a cerial bowl. Yes I do stir while heating. I used a variation on Peter Dixons recipe scaled down to 4.5 gallons.
Cheddar
For 37.50 lb. (4.5 gallons) pasteurized or raw milk.
Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon of MA011 starter culture
1/2 teaspoon double strength vegetable rennet
25 drops Annatto
3 tablespoons flaked salt
Heat milk to 88° F
21 ? drops Annatto maybe 25?
Add 1/2 teaspoon Choozit MA11 starter culture
Ripen with culture for 1 1/2 hours
Add 1/2 teaspoon double strength vegetable rennet
Calculate Check for the curdling time and multiply this times 3 to get the time from adding rennet to cutting the curd, e.g. 12 min. x 3 = 36 min.
Cut into 3/8” cubes (pea-sized particles)
Settle curds after cutting for 5 minutes
Stir and heat curds to 95 °F in 30 minutes ( 1° F every 4 minutes)
Continue stirring and heating to 102° F in 15 minutes (1° F every 2 minutes)
Cook at 102° F for 45-60 minutes until the curds bounce off your hand and feel like pellets and are springy when squeezed. Whey pH 6.1-6.2
Settle curds under the whey for 15 minutes.
Move curds slowly to the back of the vat to form a pack that is 8 inches deep.
Drain off the whey and form a trench in the middle of the pack to let the whey escape from the curds. When you are finished draining, there should be two packs of curds on either side of the back of the vat with an 8-10 inch wide trench down the middle. The pack should be about 4 inches deep.
Whey pH 5.9-6.0 by the time the pack is formed and most of the whey is drained.
Cheddaring Process:
Wait ten minutes and cut the pack into slabs that are 6 inches wide.
Turn the slabs over after 15 minutes. Turn again after 15 minutes.
Cut the slabs to half their length and pile them 2 high.
Turn the slabs over and pile 3 high after 15 minutes,
Continue to turn and pile the slabs every 15 minutes up to 7 high if you need to keep moisture in the curds or 4-5 high if you need less moisture.
Maintain the temperature at 95-100° F during the cheddaring process. This can be checked by sticking a thermometer into the slabs of curd.
When the whey is pH 5.3-5.4 (acidity of 55-75 degrees), mill the slabs of curd into pieces 1 inch x 2 inches.
Time from adding culture to milling is around 6-6 1/2 hours.
Wait ten minutes and add salt. Use coarse flake salt (like Kosher salt) Salt amount will vary with cheese yield.
Add the salt in 3 portions and wait 5-10 minutes between each addition. The idea is to let enough salt dissolve into the curds before hooping the curds and pressing them into blocks or wheels. However for smaller batches, two applications will be enough.
Gather the curds into the forms (blocks or hoops) lined with cheese cloth and move to the press.
Press with enough pressure to create a smooth rind by the next morning. This is 25 p.s.i. to start. After 30 minutes take of the pressure and tighten the cheese cloths around the cheese. Increase the pressure to 40 p.s.i. for the rest of the time.
Remove from the press and take the cheese out of the forms. The cheeses can be vacuum sealed or waxed. If muslin cheese cloth is used, it can be left on the rind and waxed over.
Medium Cheddar is at least 6 months aged
Sharp Cheddar is one year
Extra Sharp is 18 months
Vermont, Canadian, and English Cheddars have higher acidity (55-100 degrees).
Midwest Cheddar has moderate acidity (45-55 degrees).
Note:
The cheese can also be bandaged in 2 layers of cheese cloth dipped in melted lard. After pasting the cheese cloth onto the cheese, the wheel should be returned to the press for another half day or overnight pressing. The bandaged cheeses are drier after aging than the waxed or vac-sealed counterparts. The molds must be scrubbed off of the bandage, especially during the first month and after that only occasionally. An SOS scrubber sponge works well if dipped in a 5% salt brine.
The process explains cheddaring pretty well. Cheedering is kind of draining the whey in the heated pan by first draining the whey then cutting a trench through the cheese curds. Then you split the curd bundles and turn them. Each time they stretch out more and drain more whey. It's amazing how much more whey is drained by doing this. I think (my guess) that becuase the curds are still being heated they expell more whey. I believe this also aids in the knitting process becuase you end up pressing warm curds not cold ones as with draining them in a corlander.
I know somewhere on the forum there are videos YouTube maybe? I am never successful at searching for threads or I go find it. This is the first time I tried cheddaring because of the chaffing dish setup vs a pot. It's make it very much like the way commercial cheese makes do it but on a tiny scale. I'm going to pop a drain spout in the pan to make draining easier as soon as I find the appropriate bulkhead fittings.
The chaffing dish was an idea I got from a post by Gregore. Man it works great and much easier to deal with. You are limited to about 4.5 gallons with a 6 inch pan but they do have 8 inch pan if you need more.
This is where I got mine - it's electric and very steady on temperatures.
http://www.kitchensupplydirect.com/370-ECFRWP.htmlThanks again Gregore!
