How To Make Cheese Curds At Home

Cheese curds are a delicious snack for anyone. They may take a little while to make, but the actual amount of work involved is pretty minimal. These delicious curds are great for parties, lunch additions, or just a quick bite of cheese. Making them are a fun exploration in science and food making for the family or if you are trying out new cheese making techniques. Here are the steps and materials required to make fantastic cheese curds.

What You Will Need Before You Start

There are a few things you will need before starting. Here are the materials and some possible alternatives:

● A double boiler. You can also use two stock pots that fit inside of one another.
● Standard stove
● Cheese making milk
● Premade culture packets
● Butter knife
● Wooden spoon
● Cheese cloth
● Colander
● Cutting board
● Parchment or drying paper
● Cookie sheet
● Salt

Cheese Preparations

First, put a small amount of water in the bottom of the double boiler or stock pots. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the second pot. Pore the cheese making milk into the pot and set the stove to medium heat. Bring the milk to an even eighty-five degrees slowly. When the milk reaches the correct temperature, as the culture packets to the mixture. Stir the mixture very gently. Remove the pot from the burner and let it sit for an hour at room temperature.

Next, stir a mixture of rennet and water into the milk. Stir it all gently again, and leave it sit for another hour. The milk should have curdled correctly at this point. Run your butter knife carefully through the mixture to check for clean curdling. Put the curdled milk back on the burner and raise the temperature back up to one-hundred degrees very slowly. As a general rule, start at low temperature and raise it a few degrees every five minutes or so. Leave the burner at one-hundred degrees for about thirty minutes or until the whey begins to separate. Stir every ten minutes or so, very gently.

Separation

Pour the curds into a colander lined with a cheese cloth.  Leave them to drain until the curds are very pronounced. Mold the curds gently into one large loaf. Be sure you are not be too rough, as you can break the curds apart. Cut the curds very carefully into cubes. They will be very fragile until they are cheddared properly.

Put the curds into a colander and leave sitting in a bowl or very clean sink. Fill the bowl or sink with hot water, brought to about one-hundred degrees. Every hour or so pour out the remaining whey. Once the curds are mostly free of whey (this takes about four hours) salt the curds thoroughly. Lay the curds out on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a cool room or a refrigerator set at low. You will need to leave these curds out for about thirty-six to seventy-six hours. The higher the temperature these curds settle at, the sharper the cheddar flavor will be.