Cheese Making

Today I am making cheese for the first time in my life. We have not been drinking all of our allotment of raw milk each week since the oven broke 3 weeks ago (the bottom element fried itself and a new one has been ordered) and a month ago bought Sandor Katz's book on fermented foods so I decided since we had an extra gallon of milk in the fridge and some rennet tablets it was time to try my hand at cheese making.

At this point in time I have heated the milk gently to 100˚F, added a 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt, let the milk stand at 100˚F for just over an hour to let the yogurt cultures grow and culture the milk (i.e. give it some tang) and a minute or two ago added the rennet. Now I wait 1/2 hour for the rennet to do it's work.

After the milk has coagulated I will carefully cut the curds and put them into a cheesecloth lined colander, add salt and let them drain and become cheese.

I want a harder cheese so will let this sit for a week or two and than eat it.