- Oh, my god. My meat-eating days are over. Can you just hire me as the cow petter? That's useful, right? We're here in Greensboro,
Vermont, at Jasper Hill Farm. This is the country's largest
underground cheese vault, and we're here to find
out how cheese is made. - Welcome to Jasper Hill Farm. - Thank you. - This is our herd of 46 Ayrshire cows. We are managing this herd
of cows to produce milk, which is gonna go into
the world's best cheeses. - Right, so it all starts here. - Yeah. - [Katie] So, what kind of cheese are we gonna be making today? - [Mateo] Winnimere is
a seasonal washed-rind, raw milk cheese that really is the heart and soul of our business. - And Winnimere is unpasteurized, right? - You get more flavor, more deliciousness out of a raw milk cheese if
that raw milk is produced from well-managed, healthy animals that are fed a dry hay diet. Can we milk Opal first? - [Man] Yep. - Yep, all right, here's Opal. Pretty girl. - I'm kinda nervous
about putting those on. Is that okay? - [Man] There you go! - [Katie] And then I just leave it? - [Man] Yep, that's okay, yep. - I did it. So, where is this milk going? - So, this milk is actually
running down this pipeline into a receiver jar,
and pumped straight into the fermentation tank in the creamer. We'll be turning this milk into cheese in just about two hours. - Wow, fresh, fresh milk. - As fresh as it gets. - Turning into fresh, fresh cheese. Cheese making is about to happen. Thank you. - All right, you ready? - I am ready. This is like Willy Wonka's
Chocolate Factory in here. - It's better because it's cheese. - Exactly. So, how many gallons
of milk does this hold? - That's about 500 gallons in there. - So that's what 500 gallons looks like. - I think we've got about 400 gallons in this batch of cheese right here. - [Katie] So what's happening over here? - So, this is the magic part
of cheese making, really. We're going to add rennet. Rennet is an enzyme that coagulates the proteins in the milk. There'll be a moment
after you add that rennet where the milk turns from
a liquid into a solid. It's like alchemy. - [Katie] And how long does
that take for it to fully set? - [Mateo] Somewhere between
eight and 10 minutes. - That's pretty quick! - Yeah, it's fast. Alright, here we go. - [Katie] So I'm just
pouring along the back? - [Mateo] Yep, just right
along the back side. - [Katie] Alright, so we're
gonna test this out here. - [Mateo] Yeah, let's
see what we got, huh? Oh, look at that. - [Katie] Oh my gosh. - [Mateo] You have a gel, right? - [Katie] That was
minutes, less than that. - If we look over here,
you can see the hardness. Give that a feel, it's
just like a memory foam. - [Katie] It is! - We're making a many batches of cheese. Each one of these will be
renneted, cut, stirred, and then molded in sequence, and they're spaced five minutes apart. It's like synchronized cheese making. - Right, I'm getting that. - Yes. We're gonna cut this curd here,
and we've got ten seconds. Two, one, yep, yep, there you go. Yep, and then lift it up like that. There you go. Yeah, see? - Oh my gosh. I almost knocked this whole thing over. - Do you wanna try stirring one of these? Alright, so basically, you're going to just push it down gently. You know, the curds sink,
so you're pulling it up. We're trying to get the curd to roll, like a circular motion, so. - 11, I'm counting still. - That's right. - [Katie] Is that fat separation? What's happening in there? - So that is whey. That's essentially water that
we're removing from the curd. Once the curds have been stirred, we're going to take these bins, roll them over to the tip-up, and essentially tip them up into molds. The whey is gonna fall out, and we're going to be left
with these beautiful curds, evenly distributed across 96 molds. - So we're headed to the cellars next. - Yes. - Yes! - [Katie] You have the
largest cheese vault in the country, right? - [Mateo] Yep, I think we're
22,000 square feet underground. - [Katie] 22,000 square feet underground? - There are seven vaults organized around this big elliptical wall, which
is holding back to hillside. We're about thirty feet underground. - Okay, and they're kept separate, as opposed to one big vault,
because they're all different, right, depending on the type of cheese? - Every cheese needs a slightly
different relative humidity, slightly different temperature,
more or less air exchange. - [Mateo] Vault six. - [Katie] Oh my gosh. Is this sound proof? - Bomb proof. It's where you wanna be when things go badly
wrong in the real world. - I'm getting that vibe. - In the United States, you have to age cheese
for at least 60 days if it's going to released as raw. We hold it in here, we care for it, we wash it for certain amount of time, and at that point, it'll say I'm done, and we'll start turning it. - [Katie] So, there's a lot going on in the 60 days that it's in here. You're not just putting it
on a shelf and walking away. - [Olivia] No. - Every day, you're in
here checking on it. - Yes. - Do you wanna try barking some cheese? - [Katie] Absolutely! - Yeah. - So, first step is to
throw some bark on them, and this is locally sourced bark. It's going to hold the cheese together, and it's also going to impart some flavor. - This smells so good. You're moving really quickly. - I'm sorry. (women laugh) - I did five, you did 12. - [Olivia] That's fine! So we're gonna start washing the cheese. - [Katie] Okay. - But those little bristles
will leave little micro scars in the surface of the cheese. In those little crevices, that's where the bacteria wants to grow, and that's gonna form an awesome rind which is gonna taste great
and look awesome too. - Can we take a look at cheese that has been here for a little bit? - [Olivia] Yeah, absolutely. - [Katie] So, this smells so different, from here to here. - Exactly. Different ages have different aromas, and especially when it
gets closer to 60 days, you know it's gonna be a great batch when it smells like
bacon and cigarette ash. - Really? - Normally, those two things are not the combo you're looking for, but like, a Winnimere
that's gonna be awesome, that's what it smells like. - We're about 85 days into the life of this beautiful piece of Winnimere. You've got a lot of funky aroma there, and, look at that, beautiful color, right? - [Katie] There it is. - Yep, go for it. - What a difference! This is entirely different
now here at the end. - Smoky, right? - And hammy! It smells a little bit hammy. Creamy, the texture is just velvety. I've never had a cheese like it, truly. It's so unusual, but it's
so decadent and delicious. - You wouldn't be able
to coax those flavors out of a pasteurized,
manufactured product. - [Katie] I'm so glad I
got to see the process from the beginning. - Yeah. I'm going back in. - I'm going back in. - As good as it gets, I'd say. - If you liked this episode and you wanna see more, click here.
