My first cheddar came of age tonight and so we opened it up for a taste. It was good enough to eat, but I think if we're being honest with one another I have to admit that I've left myself some room for improvement. The taste was decent -- just a nice, mild cheddar. The mouth feel, however, wasn't quite right. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that it was kinda chalky. Though I haven't had one in ages, something tells me that I might be close to what it would be like to eat a cheese-flavored Necco wafer.

I suspect that I may have erred by overheating the curds. (That's not altogether surprising. We joke that you know I'm cooking when you hear the smoke detector beeping.) I'm going to do some poking around the Internet's many cheesemaking sites for tips and give it another go soon.