For this batch, I'll put the gallon of whole milk in one of my stainless steel pots and let it come to temp with some kind of mesophilic bacteria. I may use a culture because I don't think I've got any spoiled milk or cultured buttermilk to start with.. Although I may use the cultured sour cream.
By the time I get back to it, it will be the next day, at room temp, and turning well.
I'll mix up the rennet and bring everything to the required temp. I'll have to look that up at the time. I forget numbers too fast.
When the cheese sets, I'll separate the curds and whey by hand, and save the whey for the dogs next door.
I'll salt and mill the curds to my specs (whatever that day) and then press it lightly to remove more whey.
After I remember to come back to it, I'll turn it and get rid of more moisture.
I'll probably mill and salt the curds one more time.
Then I'll wrap and press the cheese until it's pretty dry. Turning it when I remember.
At some point, when I'm happy, I'll turn it out of the press and shelve it. Probably in a warm fridge for that.
At least, without the kidz around, I've got a chance of keeping it on hand until it matures a few months later.
If I build a cold smoker, I may smoke the cheese, since I like smoked cheeses.
It's a pretty hap-hazard affair around here.
/johnny
Hey we have that in common, I made cheese from our fresh goats milk for 20+ years. Some summers I made cheese 5 days out of the week out of 2+ gallons of milk daily. Everything from cream cheese, fresh mozzarella, mozzarella for pizza, hard cheddar (I used my grandfathers cast iron sausage press with my cheese mold in it)and I once made a 2 lb block of parmesan that aged for 10 months. I used hubbys beeswax from his hive to coat it. I also made a lot of kefir - I really miss that the most. I still have 3 last packages of cream cheese in the freezer, made a cheesecake last week and it was still yummy! Not on my diet but I couldn’t let the cheese get any older.
I love the smoked cheeses too. When I was just a young’un my friend’s brother worked at the local cheese plant - not a national brand - man did they ever have great cheese.
Anyway we would go round to the plant while he was on and he’d take some of the curds and put them in a paper lunch bag, and give it too us. We’d run off to the nearest shade tree and eat that stuff till we could pop.
It was warm and very salty stuff. Even to day I am sitting here wishing I could have a bag of that stuff. Those were some great times we had - today they would call us free range kids I guess.