Having recently found that most of my current attempts for cheese haven't worked as well as I hoped (just found out my rennet is out dated and was messing up everything). I decided to build a cheddar. Everything went according to plan using Peter Dixon recipe except after making it I realized that i usually mill at 5.5 -5.6 range instead of 5.3 so it is going to be interesting to see what it's like.
Out of the press and in the cellar knit isn't perfect but it will have to do.
I'm envious of your cave! I like the way you are labeling them, too. I assume you wax the cheese and embed the labels or at least their strings into the wax?
I don't wax at all if I can get away from it. The tags are pinned to the board. But I think I might be forced into some waxing because my inspector just informed me that in order to vaccum seal my cheese as packaging I would need an haccp plan another headache I don't want to deal with now. So I am going to either cream coat and wax if I ever sell a whole weel or Plastic wrap for chunks.
Hey Chetty... They look great! Thanks for sharing your large(r) scale operation pics .... I envy anyone that has a machine that stirs ones curds .... If I think of the hours I stand there ....stirring .....stirring ..... Stirring the other way just to do something different.... Lol
Some of the best and award winning cheddars are bandaged 12-14 months... that will buy you lots of time to please the inspector dude with his petty needs... You can cryovac them then.
Keep up the great work man :)