English Style Aged Cheese
This is a traditional farmhouse-style cheese made from raw cow's milk, a rennet and a wooden press, with nothing else in the pot. The method shows the real work of cheesemaking: holding the milk at a steady 80 °F, cutting the curd, and warming it slowly so no skin forms. After pressing, the wheel ages for at least 60 days, getting sharper and drier the longer you wait.
Instructions
Gently heat the milk to blood temperature, 80 °F (27 °C). Mix the rennet with the lukewarm water, stir it into the milk, and keep stirring for 1 minute.
Cover the pot and leave it for 1½ hours, ideally somewhere warm such as near a fire. Hold the milk at 80 °F (27 °C) with gentle heat while it sets.
When the milk has set to the right consistency, stir it, then cut the curds in a crisscross pattern with a long, flat wooden stick so the whey can escape. Leave the curds in the pot.
Cover the pot again and rest it for 1 to 1½ hours. Stir gently, then heat slowly to 100 °F (38 °C). Heating too fast forms a skin on the curds, and the cheese will stay wet and will not age properly.
Break the curds up very slowly by hand, then strain them through a fine mesh cloth to separate them from the whey. Squeeze out the excess liquid, open the cloth, break the curds apart, and mix in the salt.
Line a wooden press with butter and a mesh-like cloth, and pack the curds in. Press to draw out more whey, leaving the cheese there for 2 to 3 days and turning it over in the meantime.
Take the cheese out of the press. Scatter a generous layer of salt over a clean shelf in a cool place and set the cheese on it upside down.
Age it for at least 60 days, turning it every day so it dries evenly. The longer it ages, the drier and sharper it gets.
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