More cheddar

We have tasted the first cheddar we made, it wasn't exactly like cheddar but was very tasty, we thought a hint of wensleydale in there. We have left half of it to continue maturing to see if it becomes any more cheddar like, it was only a month old after all.
I have decided to use a slightly different process this time as I feel that the way I did the cheddaring (draining the whey in a warm atmosphere) resulted in the curds being a bit too warm which can result in some of the stuff you want in your cheese draining out too. It will be quite a long time until we can see whether the change made much difference or not.

4 liters milk
4 ice cubes of starter
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) rennet (mixed in a little water)
30g (approx 2 tbl spoon) salt

Heat the milk to 32°C and add the starter. Stir well and leave for 1 hour (off the heat)
Add the rennet, stir well and leave for a further hour

Check the curds are set (you can see on google ways of doing this. I slide a knife down the side of the pan, if you can pull the curds away from the edge of the pan then it is ready)

Bit hard to see

Cut the curds in to about 2cm cubes (I cut one way across the pan, then the other - making columns of curds which I then cut up by cutting through the same cuts with the knife at 45 degrees off vertical)

Columns of curd

Cut with knife at 45 degrees along the same lines

Raise the temperature of the curds and whey to 38°C, this should be done slowly over something like a 30 min period.
Maintain this temperature for a further 30 mins
Drain the whey by pouring through a cloth in a sieve (or colander). Leave to drain until the whey stops running (you might need to help it a bit by tipping the sieve around some)

Chop the lump of curd in to 2cm, or there abouts, cubes
Place the cubes in a bowl and put the bowl in a pan or sink with 40°C water in it.
Leave for two hours, draining the whey from the bowl periodically and stirring the curds gently to stop them sticking together
Add the salt and mix well before placing in the cloth lined mold.

Put the cheese in the press with just enough weight to press the whey out. Leave for a hour then turn and increase the weight.
After a further 12 hours turn again and add more weight. You are aiming for something like 8psi at this point but it will depend what your press can do.
Continue turning every 12 hours for a further 2 days.

Leave to dry at room temperature for a couple of days then wax and store in a cool place for at least a month, but preferably more.