In case I haven't told you already, cheese is my latest obsession. I've read numerous books on the topic, become friends with a few interesting cheesemongers around town, and consumed way too much of the delicious curds for just one man. Which type of cheese has the honors of being my first you ask? Monterey Jack! Why - because it was invented right here in the old U...S....of....A. USA.. USA...USA!!!! (It was invented in Monterey, California by a man named Mr. Jack. I forget his first name and the year he did it, both unimportant details, but it was sometime in the late 1800s in case you were wondering. So here is the process for making cheese in a nutshell:
1) Pour your milk into a large pot. Place the large pot of milk into an even larger pot of hot water. That way, you can slowly increase the temperature and remove the pot if it gets too hot. Temperature is very important and each recipe calls for a different temperature, sometimes multiple different temperatures at the various stages.
2) Add bacteria to flavor the milk.
3) Add renet to curdle the milk.
4) At this point, the milk turns into a gelatin like substance that resembles very stiff yogurt.
5) Cut the "very stiff like yogurt substance" (all these things have fancy names, but I will spare the details) into smaller and smaller pieces. Now you have curd and whey.
6) Cook the curds to release more and more whey. Cooking times very drastically according to cheese types.
7) Drain the curds from the whey and then salt the curds.
8) Press the curds in your own homemade cheese press. I made mine for approximately 15 bucks. Pressing ranges from hours to days depending upon cheese type.
9) Let your cheese air-dry.
10) Wax your cheese. Age your cheese.
