After looking over my cheese recipes I realized I had never made one for cheddar.  I am doing some additional things to both of the cheeses I am making today but I will add in the basic recipe and then put notes for the special cheeses down at the bottom of the page as links

1. Heat three gallons of  milk to 86F.
2. Then add 1 pack C-101 culture and let set for 45-60 min. This might seem like not enough but if you add more you can get a crumbly cheese from over acidification.
3. Add 3/4 tsp of single strength rennet. Let set for 45 min at 86F.
4. Cut curds to 1/4-3/8″
5. Next stir while slowly raising heat over 30 min to 102F. Maintain at 102F and continue to stir for another 30 min more. Then allow the curds to settle under the whey for 20-30 min.
6. Pour off whey and curds into a cloth lined colander. Place the colander and curds back into the empty pot and place the pot into a sink of 95-100F water to keep warm. Turn this curd mass at 15 min intervals for 2 hrs (at the 1 hr point cut the mass into 2″ slabs and stack on top each other). This is the CHEDDARING phase (cheddar is a process)
7. Break or cut the cheddared curds into 1/2-3/4″ pieces
8. Add  salt (use 2% of the  curd weight in salt in my case about 3 tablespoons ). Add the salt in 3 phases allowing the salt to dissolve between additions. Stir often enough to keep from matting and this salting should take 30 min.
9. Place cheese curds in cloth lined mold and press at 10 lbs for 15 min unwrap cheese from cloth, turn over, and re-wrap placing back in mold
10. Press at the schedule below and unwrap, turn cheese and re-wrap between stages
    1. 12 lbs. for 30 min.
    2. 20 lbs. for 1 hr.
    3. 50 lbs. for 4 hrs.
    4. 50 lbs. again for another 24 hrs.

11.  You may either Dry the cheese for 1-3 days and wax or vacuum seal. then age for 3-9 months depending on cheese moisture. The drier the cheese, the longer it can be aged. And the longer it ages the sharper the cheese gets.

Variation

• Hoppy IPA cheddar
• Chipotle beer cheddar