Water kefir
Milk kefir
Kombucha
Ginger beer
Kefir duo
Kefir and kombucha
Starter kit
RennetFrom 10 litres of whole milk you get a cheese of about a kilo. Warm the milk to 32°C, ripen it for an hour with about 100 ml of fresh milk kefir, then set it with 1.5 to 2 ml of liquid calf rennet. Cut the curd to the size of peas, warm it slowly to 38°C while stirring, drain it and let it knit into a slab. Cut the slab into blocks, stack and turn them for about an hour (the cheddaring that gives this style its firm, close texture), then break the curd up, salt it, mould it and press it overnight. After a few days of drying, wax it and mature it at 10 to 13°C for at least two months.
Before you start
Make a few fresh cheeses first. You will learn how a good curd feels, how your milk behaves and what the clean break looks like. If you have not done that yet, begin with How to make fresh cheese: it is the best training there is.
The milk must be whole: cow's, goat's, sheep's or a mix. Fresh pasteurised milk from the chiller is the easiest, and a gold top Channel Island milk gives a richer, more golden cheese. Raw milk from a farm works very well, provided it is really fresh and has been kept cold throughout; traditional farmhouse cheeses are made with it. UHT milk does not work.
Set aside a full day. The work at the pot takes about four hours. Pressing, drying and waxing follow over the next few days, and then the cheese looks after itself, more or less, while it matures.
What you need
- 10 litres of whole milk.
- About 100 ml of fresh milk kefir to ripen the milk.
- 1.5 to 2 ml of liquid calf rennet.
- About 25 g of fine, non-iodised salt, roughly 2% of the weight of the drained curd.
- A large stainless steel pot of 12 to 15 litres, a thermometer, a long knife and a slotted spoon.
- A cheese mould for about a kilo, with a follower (the lid that fits inside the mould), and a cheese cloth.
- Weights for pressing: a proper cheese press, or simply a few bottles or containers of water.
- Cheese wax, or muslin and a little lard, to protect the rind.
Why ripen the milk first?
Rennet is a coagulant, not a culture. It sets the milk, but it does not sour it, and it does not build the flavour that develops as the cheese matures. For that you need lactic bacteria that gently acidify the milk. Cheesemakers call this the starter.
If you make milk kefir at home with milk kefir grains, you already have a starter in the fridge. A splash of fresh kefir does the job reliably, and the acidity it builds is exactly what this style of cheese needs to knit into a slab. Without it, you can still make a hard cheese, but it will have less flavour and mature less evenly. How to make kefir is on the milk kefir page.
Step by step
1. Ripen
Warm the milk to 32°C. Stir in the kefir well and leave the pot covered for an hour, without letting the temperature drop much. A blanket round the pot, or the oven switched off with just the light on, helps.
2. Add the rennet
Dilute the rennet in about ten times its volume of boiled and cooled water, pour it into the milk and stir for a minute with slow up-and-down strokes. Stop the swirl, cover, and leave it still for 30 to 45 minutes. For hard cheese, use the upper end of the dose: see How much rennet per litre of milk?
3. Cut the curd
When the clean break shows sharp edges, cut the curd into 2 cm cubes. Rest five minutes, then keep cutting gently until the pieces are the size of peas. The smaller the curd, the more whey runs out, and the firmer and longer-keeping the cheese.
4. Warm and stir
Warm the pot very slowly, by about one degree every five minutes, until the curd reaches 38°C, stirring gently with your hand or the slotted spoon so the pieces do not stick together. Hold it at 38°C and keep stirring for another 30 minutes. The curds shrink and firm up. They are ready when a handful squeezed together sticks, then falls apart when you rub it between your palms.
5. Drain
Let the curd settle, ladle off the whey and keep it for ricotta from whey. Tip the curd into a cloth-lined colander set over the warm pot and let it drain for 15 minutes. It knits into a single soft slab.
6. Cheddar the slab
Cut the slab into four blocks and stack them two by two. Keep them warm, at around 38°C, in the colander over the pot of warm whey or water. Every 15 minutes, unstack, turn and restack the blocks, swapping top and bottom. After about an hour, the curd has turned from crumbly to smooth and springy, and tears like cooked chicken breast.
7. Mill and salt
Break or cut the blocks into finger-sized pieces. Weigh them, sprinkle over about 2% of their weight in salt (around 25 g for 1.2 kg of curd) in three goes, mixing gently each time.
8. Mould
Line the mould with the damp cheese cloth, pack the salted curd in firmly with your hands, fold the cloth over the top and put the follower on.
9. Press
Press for an hour with about 5 kg. Take the cheese out, turn it, smooth the cloth and press again with 10 to 15 kg overnight, about 12 hours.
Drying
Before it can mature, the outside of the cheese has to be dry. Unwrap it and set it on a rack or a bamboo mat somewhere cool and airy, out of reach of the cat. Turn it twice a day for two or three days. It is ready when the surface feels dry to the touch and has taken on a pale yellow colour.
Protecting the rind
There are three ways to look after the outside of your cheese while it matures:
| Method | How | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Wax | Melt cheese wax gently and dip or brush the cheese, one half at a time, two or three coats | The easiest at home: the cheese stays moist and clean |
| Cloth and lard | Rub the cheese with a thin layer of lard, wrap it in muslin, then rub more lard over the cloth | The traditional farmhouse way: the cheese breathes and dries slightly, the flavour grows deeper |
| Natural rind | Rub with a little oil now and then and brush off any mould | The most work, and needs steady humidity |
For a first cheese, wax is the safest choice. Clothbinding is lovely once you have a good maturing spot.
Maturing
The longest stage. The cheese wants 10 to 13°C and fairly high humidity, around 80 to 90%. A wine fridge is ideal, and so is a cool cellar. Without either, an old fridge on its warmest setting works, or a garage or shed that never freezes, or even the salad drawer of your ordinary fridge with the cheese in a box with the lid ajar. It goes more slowly, but it gets there.
- Turn it every day for the first week.
- After that, twice a week.
- On a clothbound or natural rind, white or blue-green mould is normal: wipe it off with a cloth dipped in salty water.
- If you see black, pink or red patches, or the cheese smells unpleasant, do not eat it. With clean work and good drying, it rarely happens.
From mild to mature
A small homemade cheese matures a little differently from a big wheel, but as a guide:
| Maturing time | Style | What it is like |
|---|---|---|
| About 2 months | Mild | Smooth and supple, creamy and gentle, melts well |
| 3 to 4 months | Medium | Firmer, fuller flavour, a little tang |
| About 6 months | Mature | Crumbly edges, a proper bite, one for the cheeseboard |
| 9 months and more | Extra mature | Needs a steady, cool spot and wax; a small cheese can dry out |
A mild cheese is perfect in a toastie or grated over a shepherd's pie. A mature one belongs on the board with apple slices, a few oatcakes and a dab of chutney. Start one in October and it will be ready by Christmas, when a wedge of cheese beside the Christmas cake is a tradition well worth keeping.
Variations
- Black pepper or chives: stir a tablespoon of cracked pepper or dried chives into the curd at salting.
- A softer washed-curd cheese: after cutting, replace a third of the whey with warm water at about 60°C instead of cheddaring. The cheese is milder, smoother and matures faster.
- Goat's milk: the same method, but stir more gently. The cheese is whiter, with a fresh, tangy edge.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make hard cheese without ripening the milk?
How much cheese will I get from 10 litres?
Do I really need a cheese press?
My cheese has holes or cracks. Is that a problem?
Can I use UHT milk?
A 10 litre hard cheese needs about 2 ml of rennet, so a 50 ml bottle of liquid calf rennet, for £13, makes a great many of them. Pair it with milk kefir grains for your own starter, or choose the kefir duo if you would like water kefir too. Everything about milk, equipment and styles of cheese is on the cheese making page.