This is a yummy, very simple recipe to make homemade cheese. It is a crumbly cheese, and is great in salads and stir-fry! Anyone can make this. There is no special equipment required.
Let me just say here that I strongly advocate the use of whole, raw milk, or as I prefer to call it, REAL milk, instead of “fake” milk, aka, that other stuff that most all grocery stores carry, but either one will work. ( The argument for why raw milk is better is a whole other blog entry!)
To start, you simply pour your milk into a heavy saucepan and heat on the stove top on medium heat.
As far as amount of milk, you can use any amount from about a quart up to gallons if you want. There is no specific measurement here. The more milk you use, the more cheese you get. The ultimate goal is to separate the curds from the whey, the curds being the cheese.
Heat the milk on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till it starts to simmer. At this point you are going to add something to separate the milk. You can use a couple things to do this. Vinegar works well, but I like to use lemon juice. I use the bottled stuff, but freshly squeazed would work as well.
Add a Tablespoon at a time and stir. Keep adding till the curds separate from the whey. You will be able to see when this happens. The curds are white and clumpy, and the whey is watery looking. It happens rather quickly. When it does, remove from heat.
Now you want to strain the whey from the curds through a cheesecloth or muslin lined colander.
You can set your colander inside another larger bowl or pan to catch the whey if you want to keep it, or put your colander right into the sink and strain if you don’t want to keep it.
Whey still contains vitamins that are good for you. It can be used to soak dry beans in to reconstitute, or used in soup bases.
After dumping your curds and whey into strainer, let the curd rest and drain for a few minutes. After it has cooled some, fold the ends of the cheesecloth up and twist to get out even more excess liquid. Don’t be afraid to twist it hard enough to get out most of the whey.
That’s it! This is your cheese!
Now the fun part, seasoning! Dump your cheese into a bowl. Here are some suggestions for seasoning, but don’t be afraid to try your own combos! Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil. Add some sea salt, dill, chives, garlic, and chopped fresh, or dried onion to taste. Crumble the cheese apart with a spoon and mix.
Cover this, and let it set for 24 hours in the refrigerator, or just go ahead and eat it if you can’t wait! Enjoy! Also good would be oregano, rosemary, thyme, a small amount of liquid smoke, or better yet, smoke it yourself. The combinations are endless, and you’ve made it yourself!
Posted by chickadeezl at 12:53 PM
