Ok, kids. Here's another cheese recipe at the request of @Frydogbrews.

I've never had this cheese from a commercial producer, but from the descriptions that I've read of it, mine turned out pretty darn close to what it should have. It is supposed to be a hard/semi-hard cheese somewhat similar to a cheddar, but with a unique tartness (sour) note that's really quite unique. The tartness is very hard to describe and really tasty. It's a little like the tang of a well aged cheddar, but not quite.

Now on to the recipe.

For this cheese, you'll need some equipment that you probably don't have. Oh noes, you'll have to spend a bunch of money! :(( No need! you can get by with a makeshift version of any of the fancy cheesemaking toys that you'll need to use.

As always, sanitation is key. Keep in mind that, unlike brewing, there is no boil to sanitize everything, so you'll have to be a stickler for sanitation from the very start. Everything should be very clean and preferably sanitized via star san or iodophor.

What you'll need:
A pot big enough to heat however much milk you plan to use
A stirring utensil
A knife
Cheese cloth
A cheese press
Some weights
A thermometer
A timer
Rennet
Milk (one gallon makes ~1# cheese, this recipe is for 1 gallon)
Cheese culture (edit-i may have used a mix of buttermilk and yogurt-meso and thermo, can't remember)
CaCl

I'll give you other options for some of these in the method, so don't give up if you don't have cheese culture, cheese cloth, a cheese press, or opposable thumbs. That last one sure is handy, though.

Let's get started! Try to maintain a constant temperature in your milk/curd while you perform each step.The temperature is important for things like lactic acid production and flavor development. You don't want to let it cool down until it gets into the press.

First you'll take your milk, put it into your nice clean pot (preferably a double boiler, but it's not absolutely necessary). Now gently raise the temp to 89F and add your mesophillic cheese culture. Don't have any of that lying around? I used buttermilk and it turned out just fine; use about 1/3 cup of buttermilk (with a spoonful of yogurt, maybe), the fresher the better. Give the culture about 30 minutes to wake up and start partying, then add 1/2 tsp CaCl that's been diluted in a little water. If you have trouble finding that, try the No Salt salt. Read the ingredients, it's likely just CaCl. After you mix that in nicely, and remember to use mostly up and down strokes to get it to mix into all the milk, go ahead and add your rennet. For my cheeses, I use junket rennet. It's not as good or effective as the microbial rennet (liquid) stuff you'll find on the cheesemaking supply sites, but it's much cheaper and more widely available. Try looking in the baking isle of the grocery store. I had to get it online, but it's super cheap. Since mine is a bit old now, I use 2-3 tabs per gallon to get it to work how I want it to.

The next step involves a little more math than I'm happy about, but such is life. Skip down to the next post and I'll explain a little bit about Flocculation as is applies to cheesemaking, otherwise this next step won't make much sense.

Did you read the next post? sucker! OK, not really. It's useful info.

For this cheese, we're going to use a flocc multiplier of 3X. Go ahead and read the third post to learn a little about what that is and why it's used for this cheese.

So you've reached the surface gelling stage, now multiply that time (from rennet to gelling) by 3 and wait that many minutes before you cut the curd. Cut the curds into about 1/4" cubes, remembering to go back diagonally so you cut along a horizontal axis as well. Now let those curds sit for about 10 minutes, so they 'heal'.

Now gradually raise the temperature to 91F over the course of ten minutes. Hold that temp for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the curd from clumping together.

Drain into a cheese cloth (if you don't have one, an old but clean pillow case or even t-shirt will work out ok) for 5-10 minutes to form a curd cake. You can press lightly if needed, just put a plate or something over it with a can of beans on it. I like to perform this step with my cheese cloth in a colander, but you can let the cheese cloth hang by itself if you'd like.

Next, take the curd cake and cut it into 1" slabs and stack them on the bottom of your warm pot. This is very similar to the process of cheddaring. Flip the curd slabs every 10 minutes, for 30 minutes, and don't worry if they get stuck together.

Now it's time to mill the curd. That just means you break it up with your hands or a large whisk. Aim for thumbnail sized pieces, or slightly less than 1/2". Add about 1 tbsp regular table salt and mix into curds. Now add the salted curd into your cheese cloth and put that into the press. Yep, one more post down to learn a little about what to do if you don't have a cheese press.

Press under 10# for ten minutes. Then, redress the cheese (take the cheese cloth off, rub a pinch of salt on the cheese, and put the cloth back on). now flip it and press under 10# for another 10 minutes. Now redress, salt and flip the cheese. Press for 20 minutes under 15#. Then, flip, redress and press under 20# overnight (12 ish hrs.)

After all that, remove the cheese cloth carefully, it tends to stick and place the cheese in your cheese cave (fridge, cooler, whatever) and store for at least 3 weeks to age and dry it. You'l want to keep the cheese at about 50F and 80% humidity to age. If any mold happens to show up, just wipe it off with a cloth soaked in vinegar. The cheese should be as dry as your palm. If it gets very dry and starts to crack, you need more humidity. Try putting it in a tupperware container with the lid cracked.

And there you go, delicious cheese in 3 weeks. You can vac seal this cheese after a couple weeks, just make sure it's done drying. If you notice a little moisture leaking out of the cheese after you seal it, you've sealed prematurely. Just take it out for a few days to dry and try sealing it up again.