How to Make a Simple Little Cheese
Last Updated September 30, 2017 · First Published October 26, 2011
I’ve been a fan of New England Cheesemaking Supply ever since I picked up a copy of Ricki Carroll’s book, Home Cheese Making
We at New England Cheesemaking Supply Company are proud to support you in your pledge to eat healthy food. Andrew has been one of our guest bloggers several times and we’re big fans of his website.
We want to take this opportunity to tell you that you don’t have to be a gourmet cook to make your own cheese. In fact, our mission is to make it very easy for you. We have many recipes in our book, on our DVD, at our website, in our blog, and in our monthly “Moosletter.”
In fact, just recently we received a recipe from one of our customers, Nancy Ferland, which will be featured in our November Moosletter. It’s basically an American version of queso blanco (South America) and panir (India).
This recipe is absolutely foolproof! The only equipment you may not have is cheesecloth, but you can use an old pillow case or even a paper towel. Any milk (except ultra-pasteurized) will work.
So, try it and we think you’ll be hooked. Then you can come to our website at cheesemaking.com, and we’ll have you aging your own Camemberts in no time!
Simple Little Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 gallon Goat or Cow Milk
- 1 cup White Vinegar
- 2-4 tsp. Sea Salt
Instructions
- Put milk in stainless pot, sprinkle on the salt and stir it well.
- Heat to 190 degrees F.
- Remove pot from heat and quickly stir in the vinegar, making sure it's well blended; let set for 20 to 30 minutes (checking to make sure it is good and curdled).
- Line colander with cheesecloth, pour milk through (whey should be yellow and a little cloudy).
- Bring up the corners of cheesecloth and squeeze as much whey out as possible; I let it sit hanging from the edge of the pot at this point for maybe 15 to 20 minutes to make sure all the whey has dripped out.
- Open the cheesecloth and you will have a lovely ball of cheese. Put it in a covered crock in the fridge until chilled.
- You can use it as a spread, or in salad like feta, or crumbled like queso fresca in enchiladas or tacos, or instead of ricotta in lasagna or manicotti. We have even made a rustic cheese/pear pie with this cheese when we couldn't find mascarpone locally, letting the mixed filling sit in the fridge overnight to soften it up a bit and make it a bit smoother. You can also use it as the base for filling for cheese danish pastry.
- We like to stir herbs, nuts, roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, etc into it when it’s still liquid (it’s easier to stir that way) and this makes a great spread for crackers as an appetizer. Hope you enjoy this nice little cheese!
Notes
Nutrition
Photos by George Wesley and Bonita Dannells.
sounds delish! 🙂
Sounds so yummy. Maybe even easier than ricotta, which I have made and love. I’m thinking folks are getting homemade cheese from me for Christmas this year! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
That is a fantastic idea. Homemade cheese for a gift! I love it!
oh this looks so easy and QUICK! How awesome is that! I’m going to try this. I love fresh mozzarella/ricotta and to make it would be such a joy! thank you!
I’ve made ricotta a few times but would love to try and make Mozzarella for my homemade pizzas. Thanks for offering this giveaway!! Also, I really like your giveaway format. I need to look into this Rafflecopter and use it on my site. Thanks again!
I always forget about this cheese! When I think about making homemade cheese, I get discouraged by needing to hunt down rennet, etc. Thanks for the reminder of how easy it is to make cheese at home. I can’t wait to try it.
It’s true, the one thing I don’t have is the cheesecloth. I should just put in the effort and get it. I’m a Wisconsinite and therefore eternal cheesehead, after all. This looks delicious!
I’ve always wanted to make cheese at home. It’s something my grandma still does. This post makes it look easy and fun. Can’t wait to try it
I make raw milk yougurt and yogurt cheese already, but had no idea how easy it would be to make cheese straight from the milk! I’m going to try this right away, and would LOVE to win the cheesemaking starter kit!
This is such a great post! I first learned about the Queen of Cheese while reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and I was inspired to make mozzarella the way it’s described in that book just last week. It was AMAZING! I loved that moment when the curds came together and started stretching like taffy. It was magical. 😉 I lost a lot of curds in the colander… I really need to get some cheese cloth.
I”ve always wanted to try this!