# Home-made cheddar cheese?



## suziquzie (Jan 16, 2008)

Can one make it themselves? I was just thinking, we go thru at LEAST a pound a week here, usually more. Our budget is so tight, it's gotta be cheaper home-made, pound for pound.
 I know you can make ricotta, could you make cheddar?


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## jennyema (Jan 16, 2008)

It would be quite challenging to do it at home and probably not worth the effort.

making Cheddar Cheese ... cheesemaking.com


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## pacanis (Jan 16, 2008)

jennyema said:


> It would be quite challenging to do it at home and probably not worth the effort.


 
Not to mention the price of the cow...... 

If there's one cheese I always have on hand, it's cheddar. I try to pick it up on sale whenever I see it and haven't really noticed a difference between name brand and store brand.
I've got five little packages of the stuff right now because they came out cheaper than a big brick. And I'm still using the brick. This is where the Reynold's vaccuum sealer gets its workout, keeping my cheddar cheese good.


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## larry_stewart (Jan 16, 2008)

I actually bought a cheese making kit from that very company.  It was for homemade mozzarella , ricotta cheese.  The ricotta worked fine, the mozzarella wasnt as successful.  I wanted to try the hard cheeses, just never got around to it ( decided to try my hands at wine making since i had a bumper crop of kiwi's )


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## expatgirl (Jan 16, 2008)

Saw a documentary about making hard cheeses like the commercial ones and I think that it would be quite a task as a lot of them are "aged" under very special environmental conditions---check your food ads (ours come out on Wed.) and look for specials and then load up---cheese will last a long time in the fridge esp. if you keep it tightly wrapped---any mold can be cut away.....maybe you can cut down easier in other areas


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## TATTRAT (Jan 16, 2008)

stick to store bought. just my $.02


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## suziquzie (Jan 17, 2008)

Yeah, dumb idea. I'll just go to Sam's club. Thanks though!


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## Bilby (Jan 17, 2008)

You can freeze cheddar that you intend to use for cooking quite successfully too.  When I get one of those pre-shredded packets, I stick it in the freezer.  Makes it last a long time then too.

As to the difference between name and no-name cheeses, in a lot of instances there isn't much of one but some of them can be very salty and others don't melt as well as they should.  But if you find a no-name you are happy with it - why not stick with it!  Don't know what it is like in the US, but over here, a lot of the no-name brands are made by the same producers as the named brands and there is no difference other than packaging and marketing.


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