Making Cheese

So today was a day for cheese making.


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.

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.

Milk blend mix  heating on stove

Cheese curd mixing in spices

Completed Cottage Cheese

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.

Hot water bottles

You may think my crazy, but I love water bottles.  Really!

Historically, the original practice was to use hot rocks from beside the fire to put in a bed. Later, it became metal boxes filled with hot coals from the fire that were put in the bed and later removed. Only the rich could afford the boxes with long handles so the poor still used plain rocks.

The modern derivative are made of flexible pvc or vinyl. Consigned to the pharmacy isles, no one thinks about just how convenient these wonders are.

I use them at work on my back when is hurting. One quick fill in the sink or a partial fill at the coffee maker (with water already inside) and I am set for hours.

In the winter, one goes to the car with me. It will either sit in my lap to help my hands unfreeze or sit in the floorboard to keep my toes warm. Ran over the inside of the windshield, it can even help clear the ice.

When I have a sick pet, I put one in the bed with hot or cold water as needed. In the winter they appreciate the extra warmth and in the summer it becomes a cooler place to sit.

I use them in bed in the winter on cold nights. When the electricity goes off, I fill them from the hot water heater and put them into bed with me.

When I am working at a desk in the winter and the floor is cold, I put one on the floor in a towel to put my feet on. Working is so much more comfortable with toasty feet.

In a tent on cool nights, I use water that has been close by the fire. They help keep the tent and bedding warmer.

When a friend had surgery and needed flexible ice packs, they came in handy. I filled them ½ with water and ½ with rubbing alcohol. They freez and stay flexible and will not bust if dropped.

The best thing?  They are sustainable.
In the summer, the used water goes on my garden. In the winter, it is returned to a pot on the heater. The pot provides humidity and a constant source of convenient hot water.