On Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:10:38 -0700, "Paul M. Cook" >
wrote:

>> Recipe please?
>
>
>Well there are hundreds of web pages devoted to this, Leeners.com is where I
>buy from.
>
>The key is the milk, you must get as close to raw as you can get. If you
>can get milk straight from a dairy you'll have the best luck. You want to
>use whole milk but bear in mind whole milk by dairy standards has much more
>fat than store bought whole milk. I add a cup of cream per gallon. All
>milk sold in stores is pasteurized. Not all is homogenized, though. The
>homogenized milk does not yield the best result as the fat does not
>coagulate to form the curds like you want. But there are places you can get
>fresh organic milk that is just pasteurized. If you have connections, pure,
>raw unpasteurized milk makes the best cheese.
>
>All you do is warm the milk, about 2 gallons, to about 88F, add your rennet
>and slowly raise the temperature to 105F. Now you want to maintain the 105
>for about 15 minutes. You'll have a nice heavy curd which you'll spoon off
>into a strainer or cheese cloth. Then you'll cool, dry and salt the cheese
>curds.
>
>The final step is you put the dried curds into hot water and let it get
>soft, then you pull it like taffy in your hands in the hot water. When it
>is shiny and stretchy you form it into balls by folding it over and over
>into a lump.
>
>That's basically how it's done. You can buy everything online.

Like I didn't need one more thing on my "want to do" list. When you
say you add a cup of cream are you talking about when you use store
bought milk? I'll have to see if I can get the raw milk from a farm
out where our cottage is.

Thanks for the inspiration. It looks like the rennet isn't all that
expensive. I can probably cross the cheddar curtain and get it in
Wisconsin.

Lou