Farmhouse Cheddar Failure

[Dirtyhip]

First an intro....my name is Alicia. I live in the lovely state of Oregon. I like to think of myself as a domestic goddess, until I tried making farmhouse cheddar.

My first hard cheese.  It was a failure.

I painstakingly followed directions in the Caroll book. I boiled all my equipment. Used the right size mold.

I dried the cheese to form a rind. Then I vacuum sealed it, instead of waxing it. I had read that you can use this method.  The whey kept building up inside the bag, so I opened it, and dried it again, then I tried to wax it. The waxing was a total disaster. The cheese fell into the wax. Then i kept messing up the fresh wax, as I tried to coat it completely. Total disaster.

After aging over a month, the taste test proved to be a bitter one. 

I am so disappointed.

How many of you failed in your first hard cheese experiment. I am so sad.

[Sailor Con Queso]

The fact that you accumulated whey in the vac bag indicates that you needed to press with more weight and/or longer. Cheddars require more pressure than other hard cheeses.

One month is not long enough for aging. Needs at least two months or it will taste bitter and acidic. I would re-vaccum bag and age some more.

FYI - Even bad cheeses are usually good when cooked into something - casseroles, Mac-N-Cheese, etc.

Welcome.

[Dirtyhip]

I read in the Carroll book that it can be eaten after one month and even right away.  All I can say is yuck. 

I had some of it, after making it the first week.  It tasted divine, when fresh.

I have since waxed it, and hopefully the wax was done properly.  Yikes...this is hard.    I tried to make my own double boiler for wax melting.  LOL 

I'll age it more, but I was tempted to go home and toss it out.   :'(

[Alex]

Welcome Alicia,

Sorry about your Cheddar, hope you will be more successfull in the future.
Don't take books and newspapers texts for granted, don't believe everything that's printed, except the price , the only thing always true.

[FarmerJd]

Welcome to the forum, Alicia. I can really sympathize. I had so many disasters at the beginning that it was hard not to get exasperated. Don't give up; it will come with time. Are you using a ph meter? What temp are you aging at? I have had a couple of cheeses in vac sealed bags that accumulated whey but I have found that usually it doesn't adversely affect my cheese (although Sailor is right about pressing weight). I just let it age and dry it when opening. When I started, there were so many variables that I felt like I would never figure what I was doing wrong. I just kept educating myself and eliminating the guesswork until i started getting decent cheese. Hang in there. This forum will really help if you will search the threads and read alot. Good luck.

[Majoofi]

I also had a disaster with my waxed farmhouse cheddar. not even my first hard cheese. The waxing went find but when i opened it after two months it was so acidic that it was repulsive. I would've been embarrassed to give to anyone. the next day it hit the trash. sigh. I decided to give up on the waxing and stick with the bandaging, and the air dried rinds.

[judec]

OOOhhhhh. 
Don't you guys have some pigs or chooks to feed the yukky cheese too?  They love it.  Any failures here never go to waste.......
Good luck with the next try.
Jude.

[MrsKK]

Don't give up on that cheese just yet.  Flavor really does improve with age.  I've been making cheese for just over 2 years now and have just started feeling like I'm understanding how the process really works and why certain things go wrong and how to repair them or rescue a cheese.  That said, I don't know that I can say that I've had any more than 2 of them that were total failures that had to be thrown to the pigs and chickens (though they'd love it if there were more!).

Hang in there and do a lot of reading and asking questions here.  Everyone here is wonderfully helpful and I've quit feeling like I'm floundering on my own.

[DeejayDebi]

Welcome Alicia. Give it time, let it age more you ma be surprised.

[justsocat]

Welcome, Alicia!
If the only thing you don't like in your first cheddar is bitter taste, i have to admit you've made a good job. If you could see the first cheddar i made you'd hardly dare even smell it. But if you smell it... i'm sure you wouldn't give it to pigs if you do like pigs 
After a year i only begin to understand how many things i don't understand so far.
But every time i'm down after next ugly cheese this forum helps me to start a new batch

[padams]

Welcome Alicia!  One thing I learned very quickly is that Carroll is very far from the bible on cheese.  I was a little suspicious when recipes seemed to be missing something...i wasn't sure what, but I knew from my years of cooking that details didn't add up.  i consider myself blessed to have found such a weath of knowledge here...There is so much that everyone knows and is willing to share! 

I would live to know what part of Oregon you are from...I grew up in Vale, on the eastern side.

Jude, unfortunatly in the US, chooks are considered just higher than rats.... in even small towns!  It's pretty sad.

[Sailor Con Queso]

What the heck is a chook???

[padams]

its a chicken....in english, not american

[SueVT]

I think, press it harder, as Sailor said, and also be careful about the salt.
Don't add the salt until the free whey has left the curds, or it dissolves and runs off.
Too little salt allows the curds to become too acidic.