Edam - Cheese Making at Home

I have always been a big fan of DIY. It makes my life fuller, saves me money, and it's more sustainable than mass consumer culture. One of the things to like to do is make cheese. It might have something to do with how much I like to eat cheese. You never know. The Edem recipe below comes from my book, Home Cheese Making in Australia, which should definitely be part of your library.

This Dutch cheese travels well and was often used on long sea voyages. Traditionally
it is round, and the joke was that if you did not want to eat the cheese, you could use it
instead of a cannonball. All jokes aside, it is a beautiful cheese with a closed texture
accompanied by small eyes. Modern Edam is not as dense as its ancestor and is a semi-hard cheese. When young, they are mild and sweet, sharpening with age.

Ingredients:

• 8 litres of reduced-fat milk
• ¼ teaspoon of calcium chloride diluted in ¼ cup non-chlorinated water
• Mesophilic hard curd cheese starter culture (see the packet for the amount to add)
• ¼ tablet of rennet diluted in ¼ cup of non-chlorinated
• water
• 1.5 litres of non-chlorinated water heated to 60°C.
• 450 grams of cheese salt for making brine
• 2 litres of non-chlorinated water for brine

Equipment:

• Stainless steel pot to place your milk in
• A second, larger pot to place your first pot in to act as a water jacket, so you can indirectly heat your milk.
• Dairy thermometer
• Stainless steel perforated spoon
• Stainless steel curd knife
• Stainless steel ladle
• Several loose weave cheese making cloths
• Large stainless steel or enamel colander
• Cheese basket and follower
• Cheese press
• Wooden cheese board or cheese mat

Instructions:

• Place your milk into a large stainless steel pot, and then place this pot into your second, larger pot with water in it to act as a water jacket. Add your calcium chloride
• and mix in well.
• Using indirect heat, slowly heat your milk to 32°C. Add your starter culture and stir gently, mixing in well. Allow to ripen, covered for 30 minutes.
• Add your rennet solution to the milk and stir in gently, using an up-and-down motion for one minute, ensuring that the rennet is evenly distributed throughout the milk.
• Allow the milk mixture to rest for one hour while continuing to maintain the temperature at 32°C.
• Check for a clean break. If the curd is not firm enough, leave for another five minutes and check again.
• Once the curd is firm enough and gives a clean break, cut the curd into one to one-and-a-half