Cheshire Cheese.

Yesterday I made some more cheese with the Cheese Monkey kit I got from Laura for my birthday.

I decided to try the Cheshire cheese. This is the recipe...

At the top of the post you can see my pan with the liquid heated to 32deg, rennet added, and wrapped in tea towels to keep it warm for 30 minutes.

Hooray! The curds had formed nicely. Can you see them sliced in the pan here?

Now after transferring to the colander you can see the lumps more easily.

After draining for a while and mixing in the salt it looked like this...

Hmm. How was all that going to fit into this little cheese mould?

I needed to squeeze a lot more whey out. I lifted the cheesecloth and started squeezing. Eventually I found I could twist the top to force as much as possible out.

And yes, it fit into the mould!

I set about pressing it...

...gradually filling the jar and then adding a weight on top.

After about 12 hours I removed the jar and let the wieiht continue to press the cheese in the fridge for another day. And here it is.

It has compacted quite nicely. Now the moment of truth - I waited for Dawn to come home so she could see. Here it is turned out of the mould and the cheesecloth removed.

Success! We had a little taste. Very fresh and creamy. No surprise there, then. It needs to mature a bit, I think, so now it is in a box in the fridge wrapped in a clean bit of cheesecloth. I wonder how long I should mature it for? I hope it doesn't go mouldy before we get to eat it.