The first thing is to understand how different mass produced cheeses are from the "real" thing. If you like and expect the plastic wrapped cheddar from the groc

The first thing is to understand how different mass produced cheeses are from the "real" thing. If you like and expect the plastic wrapped cheddar from the grocery store then do not bother. Before starting I highly recommend visiting a very good cheese store and trying a bunch of cheeses, especially hard ones. The cheese you make at home is more akin to a fine wine. It will have character, subtlety and textures you may not have experienced. I personally find the easy and soft cheeses - like mozarella - to be much less rewarding than a Gouda or Cheddar. Feta is the one exception to this, but this is only my opinion. One reason for this preference is that the amount of work-time required to make any type of cheese is pretty much a constant (not how long you age it). The same is true for the amount of cheese you make. It takes basically the same amount of time to convert one gallon of milk into one pound of cheese and six gallons. If you want to make cheese you will need to consider where and how to age your cheese (aka a cheese cave), how to press your cheese (aka a cheese press) and a source of good quality milk. I started by making some easy cheese's (Guido's Italian-like) and liking the result enough to get an apartment fridge with an adapter/thermostat as a cheese cave. I got a cheese press from cheesemaking.com and I found a source of raw milk. I cannot recommend cheesemaking.com enough. They have good quality at very fair prices, have a long list of recipes and will answer email questions with kindness and knowledge. Youtube has some outstanding video's to help you along. Someone mentioned Gavin, but if you search for "cheddar" you can find a large number of people who all use variations for making cheddar. I can now make cheeses - even from pasteurized milk - that are every bit as good as very expensive gourmet cheeses. My only problem is that I tend to eat them instead of letting them age long enough. I guess that is a stretch goal.