Cheddar Curds?

[Lennie]

My father-in-law is fond of fresh cheddar cheese curds.  I like them myself.  How do I go about making these?  I'm guessing these are just from a cheddar recipe and you take the cut curds and let them dry?  Can someone point me to a procedure for this product?

[linuxboy]

Make a milled curd cheddar, and instead of pressing the salted, milled curds, save and eat them. Search here for a recipe for the cheddar recipe.

[Lennie]

Showing my ignorance now, but what is milling?  I'm assuming this is breaking up the curds, but the commercial stuff I've seen is large lumps that I envision are from a 1" cut curd.  Are we talking about a really coarse milling or do I press them back together after milling?

[linuxboy]

Milling is when you take a slab of curd from the stacked, cheddared curd and run it through a mill, which cuts it up into ~1/2"x1" pieces. At home, you can take the slab and cut it into similar sized pieces. The point of using a traditional cheddar recipe is that the weight of the slabs will press out the whey and get you a uniform cheese mass that you can mill. You don't press them together after milling. If you did, you'd make a cheddar wheel/block.

[DeejayDebi]

I have also made cheese curds out of colby and Monterey jack cheese. I just like to steal a handful of my curds.

[Lennie]

Do they all have that rubbery consistency?  I like that, it squeaks on your teeth.  And the cheddar curds seem to have good flavor, maybe its just the salt.

[DeejayDebi]

I think when it's new like that they tastes very similar and yes they do squeak. I always taste my curds before draining, pressing and after brining. I go by mouth feel a lot when making cheese.

[FarmerJd]

Using a milled curd cheddar is definitely the best for curds. A colby is also good for this but the curds are not the same texture.

[DeejayDebi]

Agreed but they're still good to munch on!

[padams]

all this talk of squeaky cheese curds is making me hungry and reminiscent!!!!!

[Lennie]

I'm making a batch of cheddar curds for my brew club get-together tomorrow.

I started with 2gal storebought milk, +CaCl2, +24drops annatto, then added about a cup of homemade buttermilk culture.  Let that sit for 30min, got to a pH of 6.4, then 1/2tsp rennet and cut that 40min later.  Rested then stirred and cooked at 100F.  Let it settle then drained whey and cut slabs at pH 6.3.  Doing the cheddaring process now, then will mill and salt.  After that I'm bagging them up and refrigerating.

Also including a photo of our new pet Shorty, a 9-wk-old female Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  She enjoys a nice dish of whey!

[Lennie]

Here's the finished product.  After some cheese salt, they are quite tasty!  I'm going to dry them a bit tonight.

[MarkShelton]

Looks good! and Shorty is really cute! I wonder if my ferrets would drink whey...

[DeejayDebi]

Good job Lennie. I make squeeky cheese curds every time I make cheddar, colby or jack cheeses. Everone love them. Speakig of love ... I love that pup he is soooo cute! I want one!