Making Cheese

I made my first cheese last night. Here's the recipe I used:

1 gallon whole milk
1 package buttermilk starter from leeners.com
cheese salt
1/4 rennet tablet

First, I warmed up the milk to 90º F. Then I put the buttermil starter in the warmed milk and let it sit for about half an hour. I kept the milk warm by placing it in a roaster full of water heated to about 150º F.

Meanwhile, I dissolved a pinch of cheese salt and 1/4 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup of distilled water.

After the half hour was up, I put the water with the salt and rennet tablet in the warmed milk and stirred for about 30 seconds. I removed the pan from the warm water, covered it, and let it sit for about an hour.

Here's where I went, wrong, I think. I cut the curd before it was ready. I guess. I don't know really, but my cheese is very crumbly.

Anyway, after cutting the curd, I cooked it to help express the whey. I cooked it at 120º F for about an hour, again using the water bath in the roaster.

After an hour, I poured the curds and whey into a colander lined with muslin. I drained the curds and salted them with about a teaspoon of cheese salt.

I folded the muslin over the top of the curds and put the whole shebang into the cheese press/mold. I set half a gallon of water (about four pounds) on top of the mold for about 15 minutes, then increased the weight to about eight pounds (or one gallon of water) for 12 hours. I flipped the cheese (still encased in the muslin) after about six hours.

Today, I removed the muslin, salted the pressed curds, and now it's drying.

As I said, the cheese is very crumbly. I can only imagine I cut the curd too soon. I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong, though, as I've never even seen cheese made before. It's possible that I didn't let the buttermilk starter do its job for long enough.

It is certainly edible though. I had a little bit already--it's very good but a bit bland.

I'll try again next weekend. Maybe I'll try a cheddar.