How To Make Farmer's Cheese

INGREDIENTS

1 gallon whole milk

1 pinch salt

1 large lemon, juiced

DIRECTIONS

Pour the milk into a large pot, and stir in a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

When the milk begins to boil (small bubbles will first appear at the edges or if using a thermometer 190 degrees F ), turn off the heat. Stir lemon juice into the milk, and the milk will curdle. You may need to wait 5 or 10 minutes.

Line a sieve or colander with a cheesecloth, and pour the milk through the cloth to catch the curds. What is left in the cheesecloth is the Farmer's Cheese. The liquid is the whey. Some people keep the whey and drink it, but I throw it away. Gather the cloth around the cheese, and squeeze out as much of the whey as you can. Wrap in plastic, or place in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator.



Technorati Tags: Cheese, Cheesemaking, Farmer's

Read more...

How To Make Feta Cheese

INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT:

1 gallon fresh goat's milk (You can use store-bought cow's milk as well.)
1 Tbl fresh yogurt
½ tablet rennet, dissolve in 1/4 cup water
1+ gallon pot with lid
1 long bladed knife
2 clean sterile handkerchiefs
strainer
cheese mold: Cut the ends out of a smooth-sided 4 x 5 inch tin can, save one of the cut ends.
table salt

STEPS:

Warm milk to 30°C (86°F) . Stir regularly so that it does not burn on the bottom. (Less stirring is required if the pot has a thick heat dissipating bottom.) Remove from heat.

Mix 1 Tbl yogurt with equal part milk to blend, then stir the blended yogurt and milk into the warmed milk to thoroughly mix. Cover and let inoculated milk sit for one hour at room temperature.

While the inoculated milk sits, dissolve 1/2 tablet rennet in fresh cool water.

After the inoculated milk has sat for one hour, add dissolved rennet to the inoculated milk, stir to mix thoroughly.

Let the inoculated, renneted milk sit covered overnight at room temperature.

The next morning, the milk should have gelled. Some of the whey will have separated. Check for a clean break.

Cut curd as per basic cheese : start at one side, cut straight down to bottom. Make the next cut ½ inch from and parallel to the first, but sloping slightly (the sliced curd will be wider at bottom than top). Repeat increasing angle with each cut . Turn pot 90°, repeat cuts . Repeat cuts and turning two more times. The curd pieces should be about ½ inch cubes.

With very clean hand and arm, reach to the bottom and gently lift the curds to stir. Cut large pieces which appear with a table knife so that they are ½ inch cubes . Let the cut curds sit, with occasional stirring, for 10-15 minutes until curd is somewhat contracted.

Decant off the whey through the strainer lined with the handkerchief, pour curds into handkerchief. Save the whey to make whey brine.

Let drain until no more whey drains out (about 2-4 hours). It may be drained at room temperature, or in the refrigerator, as shown in the image.

Place drained curds into a bowl, mix in a ½ tsp salt, breaking up the curd.

Press into mold as per basic cheese: Line can with handkerchief, place curds inside, fold over ends of cloth, place end on top, and place weight on top of that. Let sit overnight.

Prepare pickling whey brine (12.5% salt): 20 oz of whey plus 5 Tbl salt. Stir to dissolve. The brine must be acidic or else the cheese will melt on the surface

Cut cheese into 1.5 inch cubes, place into wide-mouth jar. Pour brine over to cover . Let pickle for several days in the refrigerator. The cheese will become drier and more easily crumbled with time. Store in the frig. Rinse before use to remove excess salt .

Read more...

Wine and Cheese

Labor day weekend and a few days off to lay around the house and experiment. I dusted this post off because being a lazy weekend, I thought that I would post something fun that the whole family could enjoy. It was orginally posted in November 2005 and I have added comments (in pink) to it.

Other cheesemaking links: http://makinghomemadewineandbeer.blogspot.com/2005/10/cheese-and-wine.html

Our household has decided to switch to eating more organic and preservative free foods. In my neck of the woods, this requires us to make a lot of our own foods. One of the things that we have decided to make has been cottage cheese. It does take some time to do, but if you plan correctly, it should only take about an hour to make a batch.

Here is the process that I use to make simple cottage cheese.

Night before, put 1 gallon milk into pot with starter, (For a starter you can use cultured buttermilk since it has the enzymes needed to convert milk to cheese) cover and let it sit overnight.

Next morning, add 1/8 teaspoon calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cup water. (if you don't have calcium chloride, you can use non-idoized salt)

Add 1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup of water. Mix with a slow up and down motion. Cover and let stand for 4 - 8 hours. If have used the rennet that is found in the grocery stores and have had great success. Generally, I use 1 tablet per 1 gallon.

The curd should be rather soft at this point, cut the curd and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Slowly heat the curds to 110 degrees. I usually use the lowest setting on the stove.

After the curds have reached 110 degrees maintain this temperature for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, cover and let stand for another 5 minutes.

Line a colander with cheesecloth, drain the curds into the colander and tie into a ball.

Dunk the ball into cold water a couple of times and then let drain for 10 minutes.

Untie the bag, place curds in a bowl and break up the pieces. Add any salt, herbs, fruit that you desire. I have been using cumin along with caraway seeds, sort of a southwestern rye taste.

Store covered in the refrigerator. This will keep for about a week and will make about 1 1/2 pounds of cottage chess.

Just another thing that you can enjoy with your homemade wine or beer. Make a couple of different ones and have a cheese and wine tasting party. Bottom line, just enjoy

---

Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Cheese, Cheesemaking, Recipe

Read more...

Cheesemaking Books

Note: This items are ordered from Amazon.com. To find out more or to order, click on the picture.

---

Technorati Tags : Cheese, Cheesemaking, Butter, Yogurt, Recipes, Books

Read more...

Cottage Cheese The Old-Timey Way

Our household has decided to switch to eating more organic and preservative free foods. In my neck of the woods, this requires us to make a lot of our own foods. One of the things that we have decided to make has been cottage cheese. It does take some time to do, but if you plan correctly, it should only take about an hour to make a batch.

Here is the process that I use to make simple cottage cheese.

Night before, put 1 gallon milk into pot with starter, cover and let it sit overnight.

Next morning, add 1/8 teaspoon calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cup water.

Add 1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup of water. Mix with a slow up and down motion. Cover and let stand for 4 - 8 hours.

The curd should be rather soft at this point, cut the curd and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Slowly heat the curds to 110 degrees. I usually use the lowest setting on the stove.

After the curds have reached 110 degrees maintain this temperature for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, cover and let stand for another 5 minutes.

Line a colander with cheesecloth, drain the curds into the colander and tie into a ball.

Dunk the ball into cold water a couple of times and then let drain for 10 minutes.

Untie the bag, place curds in a bowl and break up the pieces. Add any salt, herbs, fruit that you desire. I have been using cumin along with caraway seeds, sort of a southwestern rye taste.

Store covered in the refrigerator. This will keep for about a week and will make about 1 1/2 pounds of cottage chess.

Just another thing that you can enjoy with your homemade wine or beer. Make a couple of different ones and have a cheese and wine tasting party. Bottom line, just enjoy.

Read more...

Cheese and Wine

A couple of years ago, I got thinking what would go great with my homemade wine. Then it dawned on me, cheese. Not wanting to just run to the store and by it, I set out to see if I could make my own cheese.

The first couple of attempts were not what I expected. One batch the curd really had not set right and it was more like yogurt. Threw that batch out. Tried a 30 minute mozzarella and it was just ok. An owner from an Italian restaurant, who was originally from Italy, gave me some tips on how it was done back home. Basically, old school, and his tips did make for a better mozzarella.

I tried making a hard cheese with cumin and caraway seed added. I didn't have a press at the time, so I ended up using two cake pans. A 6" pan inside of an 8" pan and used clamps for pressure. Honestly, it did turn out to be a very good cheese. Surprised the crap out of me.

The worst on of all was the batch made with raw milk. I tried to follow the old school recipe to make mozzarella and tried to age it in the whey for 4 weeks. After a week, the stench in the house was just too much. I pulled the cheese out and boy did it stink. We then named it "Stink Cheese". Well, I powdered the outside of the "Stink Cheese" with garlic powder and the smell went away. Lucky for me. I aged it for about 8 months and took it to the local wine club meeting. Every one loved "stink cheese." Go figure, starts out a bust and ends up good.

If you are interested in trying to make your own cheese here are a couple of sites that I recommend:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html This guy has been making cheese for over 30 years and his site has easy step by step instructions.

http://www.cheesemaking.com/ Website of Ricki Carroll who has a book called "Home Cheese Making" Great book. I've read it about 5 times because it contains a lot of basic info.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09337.html This site has a few simple soft cheese recipes. The easiest ones to make and requires no special equipment.

http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/3_1999.htm Interesting article on cheese making.

Good luck and let me know how your cheese turns out.

Read more...