Homemade Farmhouse Cheddar - Part Two

Homemade Cheddar Part One Here <--

Part of the cheesemaking process is allowing the cheese to age. Cheese needs to sit for months, and sometimes years to get those complex flavors and interesting textures. It needs patience combined with weekly check-ins to see how it's developing. 

It doesn't need some food blogger opening the cheese cave door every couple of hours to manhandle it and debate whether it would be possible to just eat it right now and not tell anyone what happened. Some cheese ages in peace (other people's cheese) and some cheese is constantly harassed (my cheese). 

Suddenly buying cheese that's 2,3, or sometimes 6 years old is mindblowing. Someone waited SIX YEARS before slicing into this cheese? I've been dying for the last four weeks to check out my cheddar, never mind if I had to wait until I was 33 to try it!

 

 

We had initially covered our wheels of cheddar with a few layers of cream wax. A few weeks in we tried coating the cheese with some hardwax which we made out of a combination of beeswax and coconut oil to add some flexibility. It was definitely a learning experience: hard waxing cheese does not come naturally to us. In some places there was air visible between the wax and the cheese, and in other places it adhered nicely. We weren't too worried about that though because the cream wax was already creating an air-tight barrier underneath. 

 

 The wax cracked in a couple of places after about a week, so next time we are going to try it with proper cheese-wax. Just need to remember to order it online before we get started.  

 

The cheese itself was delicious! My first reaction was "it tastes like cheddar!" which might seem like stating the obvious ("This cake I baked tastes like cake! This muffin is muffin flavored!") but I even though I was aware that we were making cheddar, the fact that we actually succeeded surprised me. 

After that initial 'wow' reaction I tried to be a little bit more critical of the cheese so that the next batch will be even better.

The cheese was pressed too thin (needs to be made in a smaller cheese mold) which resulted in the edges getting a bit dry. The center of each slice was still moist and a little creamy, but I want to make it thicker next time to increase that creamy center part.  I would also increase the weight that the cheese was pressed by to help get rid of some of the little air holes that were dotted throughout.

Aside from those little changes I was excited that we had made cheddar flavored cheddar and managed to age it as long as we did without it accidentally getting eaten.

 

After spending so much time creating the cheese, most people would probably taste a slice or two, and then carefully package up the cheese to savor it slowly and possibly age it further. 

I promptly melted a good portion of it in an epic grilled cheese sandwich. So, so worth it. 

Tasting Notes for Farmhouse Cheddar:

• Appearance: Orange. Drier texture on the edges, creamier center
• Nose (aroma): Cheesy and Chive
• Overall Taste: Cheddar Flavored! Mild
• Sweet to Salty: salty
• Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): Mild
• Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): drier, chewier sides. Soft creamy middle

Comments

[Erin]

I would have been so impatient! I'm having great fun reading about your cheese-making adventure.

[Amanda @ Once Upon a Recipe]

Oh goodness, that grilled cheese sandwich looks like perfection. Nicely done!

[Ian]

Well done. Cheddar is definitely worth waiting for. Yours looks great. I have a cheddar that is almost a year old that I am dying to crack into.

[Addie]

your cheese, when sliced, looks pretty darn good!! Glad to know it melted. I don't think I tried that with mine. Yumm!

[Renee]

Congrats on your cheddar. It looks marvelous! And that grilled cheese...oh man.

[Becs @ Lay the table]

Really glad to see it has turned out well - I would have been way more impatient like when I was a kid and had a flower press! I am currently trying to locate unhomogenised milk which is proving difficult. All I want to do is make some mozzarella!

[Mary at n00bcakes]

How fabulous! I've been really liking your series on cheeses; they've been encouraging me to take a stab at them myself. :D Congratulations on this awesome first try at cheddar; it's super impressive!

Also, stop harassing your cheese! XD

[erin @ yummy supper]

Stephanie, You are becoming a serious cheese master over there! I'm impressed that you are able to wait at all. I think I'd be a cheese harasser too.
xo
E

[Emz]

This is awesome. I really find cheddar really healthy. Thank you for sharing this :)

[liz]

This cheese-making adventure is very interesting. I am not sure I can wait all that long. I am the type to peep and peep and peep again and probably eat it prematurely. I enjoyed browsing through you site!

[Isabelle @ Crumb]

I like to think I'm pretty good about making as much from scratch as I can, but cheesemaking? That's HARDCORE!
I bow down to your ability to wait a whole freakin' month before slicing into the cheese, mostly because I know I definitely wouldn't have the patience. Then again, that gorgeous grilled cheese looks like it was totally worth the wait. :)

[Kelly Neil]

I wish I had some of this cheese RIGHT NOW. I bet it would be wonderful with some homemade herb and sea salt crackers. Droooooooool...