Watch Cheese Being Made At The UNL Dairy Store In Lincoln, Nebraska

Everyone who has visited the UNL Dairy Store knows and loves the fresh, creamy ice cream they make in the campus dairy plant. But did you realize their famous cheeses are also handmade fresh right there in the plant? Take a behind the scenes look at the fascinating cheesemaking process.

The process starts at 5 am on cheesemaking days. Milk is pasteurized in the huge vat, a process that takes about 2 1/2 hours.

Culture bacteria is added, then coagulating agent rennet is poured in to thicken the liquid into a gel.

After testing to be sure the cheese mixture is firm enough, student workers cross-cut it by hand to form curds.

The curds and whey are left to rest for a while, then stirred and cooked for 45 minutes. The cooking further firms up the curd.

The whey (liquid) is drained from the vat to separate it from the curds.

The curds sit for a while to clump together into piles, then they're scooped off to the sides of the vat.

Those piles are formed and cut into large loaves and their acidity is closely monitored.

When the acidity is right, the loaves are cut and the slices are milled into smaller pieces.

The curd is salted in intervals while it's being mixed.

The curd is scooped into boxes where it's carefully weighed. Each batch yields around 800 pounds of cheese.

The boxes are pressed on a hand-tightened machine overnight to form the curds into big blocks of cheese. The entire process, from milk to machine pressing, takes about 8 or 9 hours.

Student workers seal the big blocks into plastic bags, weigh them, and tag them with the date and style.

The blocks are placed in the cheese cooler until they're perfectly aged.

The blocks are then cut into smaller blocks, packaged, and labeled for sale. The plant makes eight varieties, all of which are delicious and beloved by fans.

If you want to get an up-close look at the whole process, the UNL Dairy Plant offers free tours for groups and families. You need to schedule your tour at least two weeks in advance, and at the end of the tour you’ll get to buy an ice cream cone with a discounted “tour rate.”

Get in touch with the UNL Dairy Store at (402) 473-2973, dairystore@unl.edu, or their website.

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Delana Lefevers

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