How Do You Make Homemade Cheddar Cheese?
Local supermarkets carry dozens of kinds of cheddar cheese–white, yellow, sharp, milk, shredded and in blocks. Most of these cheeses have added stabilizers and preservatives that keep the product on the shelves for a longer period of time. Making your own homemade cheddar cheese can be a fun project to undertake and results in a tasty, preservative-free cheddar. Heat 1 gallon of non-homogenized milk in a saucepan until it reaches 150 degrees F. Keep the milk at this temperature for half an hour to kill bacteria and make the milk safe to use to make cheddar cheese. Find local sources for non-homogenized milk at Real Milk (see Resources). Allow the milk to cool to 70 degrees F before adding 1 tsp. starter. Starters come in both a liquid and a dry form and are available for purchase at stores such as Leeners.com (see Resources). You can use either kind of starter. Cover the pan of milk with a dish towel and let it sit in a warm place in the kitchen for an hour. After an hour, return the
