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Sloansalad wrote:

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When I was a senior in college I was quarterback on the college football team, but what I was most interested in was my English teacher, Mrs. Miller (not her real name), who I spent many nights dreaming about. As well as teaching English, she also happened to be the wife of the college president. At forty, she was some kind of sexy woman, usually coming to class in a two-piece business suit, with a skirt that ended halfway between her knees and her crotch. Beneath it she always wore white silk panties, and every so often I would get a glimpse of them under her desk as I sat in the front row. She was six feet tall, about a hundred and thirty pounds. She had long black hair, 36D breasts and the most beautiful legs I had ever seen. I was no slouch myself, being blond, six feet four and all muscle, and being a football star I could just about have my choice of the college girls. But I could not get over Mrs. Miller. In class the words she said were a blur to me, but looking at her I would have a hard time covering up my hard-on.

I usually make 5 gallons of milk into cheese at a time in a 5 gallon Volrath stainless steel pot. Its thick aluminum bottom pad prevents scorching. Five gallons of milk produces a 5-6 pound wheel of cheese .

I suggest you try several other simplier cheese related projects beforeyou try making a hard cheese. I have written a page on Beginning Cheese Making for this purpose. It might also be wise to master the process for one gallon of milk before making cheese from 5 gallons.


INGREDIENTS:
TO TURN FIVE GALLONS OF MILK INTO SIX POUNDS OF CHEESE

five gallons fresh milk (Be sure that it has no off flavors due to bacteria)
1 cup (250 mL) live cultured yogurt (I prefer Dannon Plain (minimal additives). Get the freshest available from the store.)
Alternatively, you may use 3 tablespoons (45 mL) active cultured buttermilk as starter.

1 tablet rennet "Junket Rennet Tablets" come in a package of 8 tablets (6.5 g) , by Redco Foods, Inc., P.O. Box 879, Windsor, CT 06095 (formerly theSalada Foods Division). Here is what the back of the package looks like . They can often be found in your supermarket under the category of "puddings." If they are not there, ask the manager if he would please order them. Most managers are willing to do so. If that fails, you can order them from the manufacturer. I recently contacted them via email, and they said to call Redco Direct Market at 1-800-556-6674 to order Rennet tablets. Here is their email response. You may find some cheese makers on the web who prefer liquid rennet,and disparage the use of rennet tablets. I prefer using materials which arereadily available locally. I have not had problems making cheese associated with Junket tablets. Here is a whole page devoted to rennet ...

1/4 cup salt

APPARATUS:
thermometer, reading -10 to 110°C (0 to 225°F) (I prefer centigrade, but include Fahrenheit numbers as well)

wooden mixing spoon or whisk

Stainless steel pot (with a heavy thick bottom is best) or enameled pot, 5 gallons, with lid, sterilized. 1

8" strainer (You may use a colander, though the whey does not flow through as fast as a strainer.)

PRESSING FRAME: (Here is a page on how to assemble a cheese press at home .)

pressing frame (6" x 9" piece of PVC pipe or tin can, with ends removed)

a 'follower': circular block of wood, 5.5 inches diameter

5 gallon canner

large white dinner plate

white dish cloth (non-terry), very clean

rubber band cut from an inner tube

two chop sticks

quart mason jar

PROCEDURE:

THE NIGHT BEFORE YOU MAKE CHEESE:
1.a. Sterilize the pot: The evening before you plan to make cheese, place a small amount of water in your cheese pot, cover, and heat to boiling for 10 minutes to sterilize the pot and lid.

1.b. Warm 5 gallons of milk to 20°C (68°F) in a sterilized pot: skim the cream off of five gallons of the freshest milk (save for ice cream ). Warm the milk to 20°C (68°F) slowly so as to not scorch the bottom).

2. Add starter: Blend 1 cup yogurt with 2 cups warmed milk until smooth, stir into the five gallons of warmed milk to thoroughly mix.
Alternatively, you can use 3 tablespoonfuls of active buttermilk as starter. Because the bacteria in buttermilk grow much faster at room temperature than those in yogurt, do not incubate longer than 8 hours or warmer than 70 F or the milk may over adicify and begin to clabber. Partially clabbered milk will not yield a clean break.
The function of this inoculation with bacterial starter is to lower the pH so that the rennet will be able to act on the milk protein (casein).


3. Cover with the sterilized lid.

Let the inoculated milk sit at room temperature overnight (68-72 F, 20-22 C). (No external heat.)
THE MORNING YOU WILL MAKE CHEESE:

4. The next morning, [OPTIONAL: skim off additional cream, if you like, it makes delicious pancakes).]:
Slowly warm milk up to 30°C (86°F). Take care not to scorch it on the bottom.

5. Dissolve the rennet:

Meanwhile, dissolve 1 tablet of Rennet in 1/2 cup cold water .
Alternatively, if you have liquid rennet, you add 1 teaspoon per five gallons of inoculated milk (4 drops/gallon). (I have only used tablet rennet, but am assured that liquid rennet works just as well if fresh.)

6. Add dissolved rennet to warmed milk with stirringto mix. Cover, let sit undisturbed for 1 to 3 hours.

7. TEST FOR A "CLEAN BREAK."
To test for "clean break" (completed action of rennet), probe a clean finger into (hopefully) gelled milk and lift. If the gelled milk is not firm enough to split cleanly as you lift, let milk sit until clean break is obtained. (Do not stir.) This may take as long as 3 hours. Be patient, do NOT disturb the milk. Keep warm. Here is a page to help you diagnose the problem of inability to get a clean break.

8. THIS IS A "CLEAN BREAK"
When the gel is firm enough to break cleanly as the finger is lifted, go to next step. ( Here is a very large version of the clean break .)

9. Once a clean break is achieved, cut the curd with a long blade:
Begin the cuts at one edge of pot, cut straight down the side to bottom. Cut repeatedly parallel to first cut, but increasing the angle of the knife until you reach the other side of pot.

10. Rotate the pot 90 degrees, repeat series of cuts as before.
Rotate and cut a total of three more times (four in all), yielding ½ inch cubes of curd. Cover and allow the curds to settle for about 15 minutes. Pour off the whey above the curds, saving for ricotta if you like.

11. "Cook the curds": After sitting for 15 minutes and pouring off excess whey, place pot over a low fire, stir curd with thoroughly cleansed bare hand by reaching down to bottom, gentlylifting with an open hand to stir. Cut larger curds as they appear. Do notmash or squeeze. If you want to set aside some for a type of cottage cheese, remove a portion of the curds at this steps and refrigerate before you raise the temperature. Stircontinuously as you heating (curds will clump together otherwise), until themilk is 34°C (95°F) for soft curd cheese, or as high as 39°C (102°F)for very firm cheese. Note: you need a quality thermometer for this'cooking' step: a small change in temperature makes a great deal of differencein the consistency of the curd/cheese.

12. Stir and maintain desired temperature until curd has contracted to consistency of firm scrambled eggs. Remove from stove.

13. Separate the curds from the whey:

Let the "cooked" curds sit for a few minutes. The curds should sink in whey. [If the curds float , you have a gas-producing contaminant in your starter. It does not necessarily ruin the cheese, indeed, you might WANT bubbles in your finished cheese. Butfloating curds are more difficult to separate from the whey than sinking curds.]
Decant off whey through a strainer (you may line the strainer with clean cloth if the curd is very fine grained).

14. Decant (pour off) as much of the whey as you can. Drain well.
(Save the whey for ricotta if you like.)

15. Place curds in a large bowl.

16. Salt the curds:

Sprinkle 1/4 cup salt over curds, working with hands to mix. Pour off accumulated whey.

The salt is necessary so that the cheese will not spoil as it cures. I have tried making cheese without salt and it rotted. However, unsalted, uncuredcheese may be frozen until use.

17. Load the press with the salted curds:

Place the still-warm salted curds into a cheese press. (See separate page for assembly of cheese press .)

It is necessary for the curds to be warm inorder for them to 'knit' together to form a solid cheese during pressing.

18. Press the curds:

Let sit in the press for 12 hours or so.

19. Remove the cheese, wrap in sterile bandage:

The next AM, remove from press, remove cloth, rub outside of cheese with salt and wrap with fresh sterile handkerchief "bandage."

20. Age to develop a rind:
Place the bandaged (wrapped) cheese on a non-corrosive rack (plastic or stainless steel) in the refrigerator. Replace "bandage" daily as long as it continues to become wet. Turn the cheese so that it dries evenly.

21. Wax the cheese
When the cheese has formed a dry yellowish rind (two or three weeks), dip in melted wax , store in refrigerator for at least a month (if you can wait that long). Let age longer for sharper cheese.