Every once in a while Jen and I decide to do something off the wall... OK, we do it all the time, but we simply don't get to do as much cheese making as we want. We have been on the search for raw milk for some time and the stupid regulations keep getting the in way. Why they can't let all the stupid people go to destiny, I don't know.
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| Adding in the spices to the curd |
So today, after the farmer's market, we made cheese. We had found some pasteurized milk we thought might be suitable since it did not say ULTRA pasteurized and we had plenty of powdered milk. We also got some cultured butter milk to help out. I already had Calcium Carbonate from a previous cheese making adventure, so we had everything we needed to play for a day.
The basic recipes we followed are
Quick Soft Pressed Cheese
2 c. boiling water
1-1/2 c. dry milk powder
3 T. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk
3-4 T. fresh lemon juice -(we used vinegar since that is what we had available)
Soft Cottage Cheese
2 c. hot water
1-1/2 c. dry milk powder 3 T. Fresh lemon juice or white vinegar
We have made these cheeses several times before. We mix everything up. Calcium Carbonate (I read somewhere) helps the curds develop when using powdered milk. So we played around and had fun.
Some recipes we used a blend of powdered non-fat milk, powdered whole milk and lightly pasteurized milk. Some we added buttermilk; some we omitted the powdered whole milk. Some had calcium carbonate and some did not.
The plain soft cottage cheese is a small curd cottage cheese and it is fantastic in Italian dishes. The soft pressed cheeses are good for pressing into shapes, using as spreads or for a cheese tray.
So the basic way to do this, if you are only using powdered milk
Put the water on to boil and mix in the powdered milk powder. Make sure all the clumps of milk powder is broken up. Right before it boils, add in the vinegar and gently stir until it starts to form curds. When that happens, take off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then strain the curd and flavor. Sea salt, chives, thyme, rosemary....whatever flavors you want to add, add those before all the liquid is strained out of it. We find that washing the curd in cold water helps remove the vinegar taste if you want to eat it immediately. If the cheese is to be stored, the vinegar taste lessens after a while.
This is a small curd cottage cheese that will dry out if pressed. It can be used as a garnish in salads, a topping to any dish and is fantastic in baked Italian dishes. If you want to use this as a dip, rinse it out with a bit of ice water, lightly drain and add all of your favorite dip fixings. It can be used in place of or as a accompaniment to cream cheese. The only real drawback to this cheese is that it is not spreadable. it is very small curds
If you are only using liquid milk with no powdered milk just bring it all up to heat and follow the directions above, just do do not have any powder to make sure is broken up.
This cheese is a softer cheese. Before it is pressed, it is spreadable. When it is pressed, you will be able to slice it. Our biggest issue is not pressing it long enough to get it into a truly slice-able cheese. This is not the cheeses fault, this is our own hunger at work.
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| Milk blend mix heating on stove |
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| Cheese curd mixing in spices |
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| Completed Cottage Cheese |
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| Soft Spreadable Cheese with Chive, Rosemary and Himalayan Sea Salt. |
HINTS
Any light cloth will work as cheese cloth. The issue with the fabric is that it needs to be able to DRAIN the thick whey and it needs to not have too large of holes that the small cheese curd squeezes thru the weave.
Ideally, it is a lightweight unbleached muslin. The squares need to be around 18 inches square and need to have some sort of edging on them so stray threads do not wind up in the cheese.
If the fabric is quality and has an edging - even just a zig-zag stitch will do, it can be washed and sterilized as needed.
All counter tops need to be sterilized before making cheese. Any stray bacteria can ruin a cheese while pressed and aging.
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