I LOVE cheese.  Most people LOVE cheese.  But have you ever considered how cheese is made?  It seems too complicated to even ponder doing yourself, right? Here’s what I knew before Friday’s cheese-making workshop: Step 1) Get some cow or goat’s milk.  2) Somehow (through a bacterial process, maybe? (ewww, gross!)) transform it into this tasty tasty substance that we all love so much.   A group of students, staff, and I now know a whole lot more about how to make this delicious food. We learned how to make (and eat) mozzarella and ricotta.  We also tackled the first stages of cheddar, which then needs to age a bit before it’s ready to eat.  Here’s a visual overview of the process:

Heating the milk in stainless steel pots.

With a little acid, the curds begin to separate from the whey.

Scooping the curds from the whey to then further drain the curds.

Through a process of heating, kneading, and stretching the curds, we made mozzarella.

A press (homemade from PVC piping, a wooden block, and a heavy brick) for draining the whey from the cheddar over several weeks.

Expectant cheese-lovers.