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This article describes my first attempt at making cheese. I picked up a copy of [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1270920.Cheesemaking_Made_Easy Cheesemaking Made Easy: 60 Delicious Varieties] from the local library for instruction. Most (all?) of the recipes start with 2 gallons of whole milk and end up creating 2 lbs of cheese. The shopping lists and instructions below are for creating 2 lbs of Gouda from 2 gallons of supermarket whole milk.<br/>[[File:gouda_1.jpg|600px]]

It is necessary to use some kind of cheese press to press excess liquid (whey) out of our cheese. The book referenced several types of presses including 1 that is pretty simple to make at home. I opted to build a version of the home cheese press and you can see the results below. If you build a similar press, the book states that well seasoned hardwoods are ideal materials and specifically calls out birch and maple. I made my press and cheese board out of birch plywood from the hardware store.<br/>[[File:gouda_17.jpg|600px]]<br/>

#*#For everything else I used a No-Rinse Sanitizer left over from beer brewing. The book talked about using a Bleach/Water Solution (2 tbsp bleach to 1 gallon water) or steaming/boiling metal utensils for 5 minutes. If you opt to use the Bleach/Water Solution, ensure you rinse off equipment afterwards so the bleach doesn't kill the good cheese bacteria.<br />[[File:gouda_3.jpg|600px]]#*#I also chose to have a little tray of sanitizer to leave my equipment in as well as having a bowl of the sanitizer water to dip my hands periodically.<br />[[File:gouda_4.jpg|600px]]#Ripening##The first step is to warm up 2 gallons of whole (vitamin D) milk in your 12 qt pot to 90 degrees F. The cheese making process is sensitive to temperature so make sure you keep an eye on it.##Once the milk is warmed ad 4 ounces (1 packet) of mesophilic cheese starter culture powder, and mix thoroughly.<br />[[File:gouda_5.jpg|600px]]#Renneting##The next stage is where the curds (milk solids) and whey (milk liquids) begin to separate.##Dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet (or 1 teaspoon liquid rennet) into 1/4 cup cool water.<br />[[File:gouda_6.jpg|600px]][[File:gouda_7.jpg|600px]]##Gently stir rennet mixture into the milk for 1 minute.##Continue to stir the top of the milk for another 3 minutes.##Here the instructions say to cover and leave to set for 1 hour. After an hour I didn't think that my milk was setup enough. The test is supposed to be that you run your curd knife through the milk and the gap stays. I ended up leaving the milk to setup for an extra hour. I believe that it didn't setup as fast as it should have because it was a bit too warm. I don't think that this extra hour hurt anything so play it by eye and make sure your milk as setup.#Cutting The Curd##At this point you need to, using your curd knife, gently cut the curd first one way at 1/2" intervals, and then again at a 90 degree angle creating a bunch of tall curd columns. Make sure that your knife reaches all the way to the bottom.##Next, using a ladle, carefully lift the curds and cut them sideways to make 1/2" cubes. You want to be gentle here, but don't expect the curd to stay in nice cubes. Mine didn't.<br />[[File:gouda_8.jpg|600px]]#Cooking The Curd##Over the next 30 minutes you want to raise the temperature of the curds to 100 degrees F. This, however, should only be done 2 degrees every 5 minutes.##During this 30 minutes, continuously stir very gently. What is happening now is that the curd and whey are continuing to separate. You'll see the curds appear to get smaller and the volumn of whey appear to increase.<br />[[File:gouda_9.jpg|600px]]##Now remove 8 cups of whey (try to not remove too much curds... I used a cheese cloth stretched over a 1 cup measuring cup to help with this) and replace with 8 cups of water.##Keeping the temperature at 100 degrees F continue to stir gently all the time. Wait 10 minutes, remove 8 more cups of whey and replace it with 8 more cups of water.##Again wait 10 minutes, remove a final 8 cups of whey and replace it with a final 8 cups of water.##Stir for 10 more minutes to finish out this phase#Draining##Pour the curds into a cheese cloth and let the whey drain away. You should now be left with a nice pile of curds in your cheese cloth.<br />[[File:gouda_10.jpg|600px]] #Molding and Pressing##Place the cheese cloth filled with curds into your cheese press. Place a second cheese cloth on top. Do not twist of the excess of your primary cheese cloth and lay it on top. Otherwise you will get a big dent in your cheese wheel (like I did!)##Put the follower on top and install the top plate. Then place 20 lbs on top and let it press for 20 minutes.##Now flip the cheese over in the mold (or flip the entire mold), place 30 lbs on top and let it press for another 20 minutes.##Now flip the cheese one last time, place 40 lbs on top and let press for an additional 3 hours.<br />[[File:gouda_11.jpg|600px]][[File:gouda_12.jpg|600px]]<br />[[File:gouda_13.jpg|600px]][[File:gouda_14.jpg|600px]]#Salting##The next step is the brine the cheese. First prepare a 20 percent brine by mixing 1 1/4 lbs (about 3 cups) of course salt with 1/2 gallon of cold water in a large glass bowl.##Float the cheese in the brine for 3 hours. The book didn't say to, but I chose to flip it after 1.5 hours to ensure that both sides get equally salted.<br />[[File:gouda_15.jpg|600px]]#Drying##This is the longest part of the process. 3 week!##Place the cheese on the drying board and try to keep it somewhere as close to 50 degrees F as possible. It is winter and my basement is about 55 degrees so that's what I did.<br />[[File:gouda_16.jpg|600px]]##Flip the cheese daily to ensure even drying.##If any mold forms, wipe it off with a cheese cloth dipped in vinegar.#Waxing##The last, optional, step is the wax the cheese like the professionals do!##Well, I'm writing this article while my cheese is drying so I haven't had a chance to do this yet! I'll update this part once I get to wax the cheese.