4 lbs and 6 oz perfect baby ,,,

[feather]

Cheddar cheese curds.
4 gallons of whole milk
6 hours

This was my first time making cheddar cheese curds and they taste terrific. Much easier than Motzarella cheese.

Now my WI family is happy.

[mzgarden]

Do you have a link to the recipe? Look yummy.

[feather]

I used the following recipes with changes.
www.cheesemaking.com/Recipe_CheeseCurds.html
cheese.sunspotdesign.com/cheese/?page_id=498
culturecheesemag.com/diy/homemade-squeaky-cheese-curds
www.leeners.com/cheese/recipes/cheese-curd.shtml
(I read more recipes for tips over the 6 hours.)

I used the first link recipe for the most part, for ingredients and temperatures.
I used a thermophilic culture versus a mesophilic culture, as the first recipe stated though other recipes use mesophilic.
I used annatto and calcium chloride. Milk was pasteurized whole milk.
I let the thermophilic culture work for an hour instead of a half hour. I brought the temperature from 96 degrees F to 116 degrees F over the course of 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. I used liquid vegetable rennet and let it work for 60 minutes instead of 28 minutes before cutting the curd. Then I cooked the curd for 60 minutes.

I put the cooked curd in a mold/drainer (a colander would do) over the warm roaster whey and used the cheddaring and cutting process from links 3 and 4, and that took about 2 and 1/2 hours. Then I salted them and let them sit out to dry.

I used ph strips to get the acidity where it was suppose to be. I'm going to buy a ph meter to get a better idea of the ph. Inexpensive, lesser quality ones can be found for $15-$20.

I warmed the milk in a 16 quart roaster and measured the temperatures with a candy thermometer. If I wanted to raise the temperature, I turned up the roaster to 250 degrees and put the cover on. If I wanted to lower the temperature, I turned off the roaster and left the cover off. If I wanted to hold the temperature, I turned off the roaster and put the cover on.

If anyone has done this or will do this, please share. It was pretty fun and fail proof if you don't rush it. The way I look at it, if I'm going to dedicate 6 hours or so, to anything, I might as well make a 4 gallon batch instead of a gallon at a time. If I had the equipment for making 8 gallons at a time, since most of the time is spent stirring and measuring temperatures, it wouldn't be a hardship to make two 4 gallon batches at the same time.

Thanks for looking!

[mzgarden]

cool, when the goats are in milk again, I'll have milk to try this with.

[feather]

Dec 24, 2016 23:15:31 GMT @redfish said:

We love fresh cheese curds, kids call them squeaky cheese because they squeak when you eat them fresh out of the pot. Mine are a lot simpler though. I just slowly heat my milk to around 86F (fresh goat milk, lower temps than cow milk), add appropriate amount of culture (I use kefir or buttermilk), let sit 45 or so minutes, add rennet, let sit till curdled, stir, warmup to 95 or so, let sit another hour, stirring every so often to prevent matting. Strain, salt and eat. I've also done the cheddaring. Basically you can follow any hard cheese recipe and skip the pressing of the cheese in a mold. Just cut/crumble and eat.

I will try this on my next batch for the fun of it. At our home, we never get enough curds, someone buys a bag and then inevitably once the bag is gone, someone says, Hey I thought we had some curds, what happened to them? So now with over 4 lbs of curds, no one is going to say that. Right? Need (make your own) is the mother of invention.

I think I'll freeze a couple lb bags, as there is no way we're going to run out, now.

In our old age, we've sampled curds for 50 years or more, and some are good and then once in a while, some are great. There's a cheese factory on the way to family, and the curds are really worth mentioning. There are cheese curds available at almost every gas station and grocery store, not worth mentioning really. There is another cheese factory near Minneapolis on the wisconsin side, they are GREAT. The factor making them go from good to great, is the flavor, the cheddary goodness, and this factory even makes a colby I love, due to that flavor.

I'm a cheddar person, DH is a colby person, never do our tastebuds agree. But this cheese from this cheese factory, we both love. I think this cheese tastes cheddary (the colby), he thinks this cheese tastes like the best colby (full flavored) he's ever had. So I think what I'm looking for is a well developed culture, and this time, it was thermophilic, next time I have a whole day to do this, I'll use the mesophilic culture. I've even purchased a sharp lipase to try at some point.

In making the cheese, a recipe said to let the curds stay warm, and let them sit for 12-24 hours, so I left mine out overnight. It made a good difference in taste, I'm glad I did that.

Redfish, I'll give yours a try after we run out. We just can't get enough of a good thing, curds.

[feather]

Yes it makes perfect sense! I feel like I've just climbed an unclimb-able mountain with these curds.

By the time I was done with the 'long process', they were drier and had a good acid balance, good taste.......but that doesn't mean we wouldn't like some buttery squeeky new curds, so next time.

So you used kefir for them--we keep that in the house, so I might go that way. All fun and calories.

[feather]

@redfish, so I'm reading recipes and was thinking (ouch) that I'd like to make some feta cheese. On the cheesemaking site, they were selling some bulgarian yogurt culture and other cultures... On another site they are saying you can use a mesophilic culture (which I have in the freezer), and you are saying I can use kefir (which I have some active kefir culture in the fridge). You didn't say kefir for the culture for feta cheese but from what I read, I could use kefir culture instead.

Why am I thinking of making feta? Well, my motz is about gone, almost. I have 4 lbs of cheddar curds, 3 of which I breaded yesterday to make deep fried for new year's eve (some of them). And my DH, thought it would be a good idea!!! to buy 5 gallons of milk, because he had coupon which brought the price down to $1.99/gallon of whole milk. He has plans to buy another 5 gallons, and I still haven't invested in a wine/cheese/chiller/refrigerator or cheese wax to age some cheese yet! I'm a fan of feta and I love a good marinated salad of tomatoes/feta/pepperoni/veggies/olives/pickles. I can store this feta in a brine solution in the fridge for a month or until we've eaten it all.

So I'm contemplating making feta tomorrow, maybe 4 gallons recipe, possibly kefir, possibly mesophilic culture. The meso culture is measured in 1/4 teaspoon amounts, for 1/4th teaspoon for 2 gallons of milk. It's a day long process where I'll get nothing else done. If you have any suggestions or thoughts on it, I'd love to hear it.

Any idea on how much kefir you might use for a batch of 2 gallons of milk?

[feather]

Probably way more than you wanted to know, sorry!

No, no no, I love hearing it, I'll remember and it helps add to what I do know.

I'm getting pushed to make more curds by DH, so I'm thinking I'll do the kefir batch of cheese curds first. Then the feta, and I don't know if I want more crumbly or more creamy. I do know I want more flavorful, and I'm considering using some lipase powder in them to get them more 'sharp'. I've had crumbling feta and I've had less strong feta and they are like two different cheeses. I like the sharper flavors more than then DH, he likes the milder flavors. It matters less what DH likes when it comes to feta, where it matters less what I like when it comes to cheese curds.

From reading, the thermo cultures like slightly higher temperatures to reproduce, 115 degrees F and that produced a good flavorful cheese curd with all day processing--it had a stronger cheddary flavor the longer it was left near 90 degrees and as it sat out overnight. The meso cultures like a lower temperature to reproduce, more like 86-98 degrees F. I can understand that some cultures do better in a salt brine while others might not. I've read the lipase culture, not to add MORE, and don't add it to the starter culture, add it right before the rennet. So the process/procedure might need to be different for each type of cheese. I'm learning. It's organic chemistry lab in the kitchen, and it's fun, and it's tasty.

I can see I need a diary of cheesemaking to recall which cultures to use, how long, at what temperature, how it turned out, what to do and what not to do, as we try each cheese.

[feather]

@redfish,I followed your lead and made some curds, no lipase but I used kefir for the culture. Yum. They turned out great and I took about 4 hours instead of 8 hours for measuring temps and stirring. Thank you for that method. We are again in curd heaven.DH said, "yes these taste good and they are moister", and DS likes them too.

I really appreciate you sharing that method with me. Thank you thank you!

I'm done with the 4th batch of some type of cheese, I'm amazed how fun it has been.