Farmhouse Cheddar

Well the cheese press came, sat and waited. I needed a stock pot that could hold 2 Gallons of milk, sadly I didn't have one. But after all the searching I have one. Plus it works with my giant pressure canner as a double boiler. WOO HOO! Double boilers are expensive. I digress, yesterday cheese making commenced! I opted on Farm House Cheddar which according to the home cheese making book is a good easy first hard cheese.

All went according to plan, it is a long process of waiting. Add this, let it sit for 45 minutes now add that and let it sit for another 45 minutes. Not too time consuming but definitely have a good book on hand or do something else in the kitchen like.... make tortillas, a whole other post all together.

I only took two pictures of the entire process because I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. So I have the cheese being pressed and then this morning after it pressed all night.

I promise you it is cheddar. I know it's not orange! They dye cheddar.... ummm cows milk is white. Yeah, I never thought I was ingesting dye either. I was kinda shocked to find that out. I guess as the story goes cows milk has carotene in it which will make it a slightly yellow color. But it mostly depends on how much butterfat is in the milk, so cheese makers of old found they could use inferior butterfat milk add dye to it and charge a higher price for the cheese! HA HA! Us consumer suckers have been duped! I found it highly funny. So my cheese is a creamy white, no dye in that beautiful baby!