Adventures in cheese making

What a fun thing to do. If you have never attempted to make cheese of any kind before then you must try it. It is amazing to watch the milk product transform into a whole new being. Also what do you do with milk when it is close to or past date? MAKE CHEESE!!!


Ok so I had about 4 gallons that were past date. I know we drink a lot of milk, at least the kids do, but I know there is no way for us to use it all up before it turns sour. So I thought ricotta cheese. I threw 2 gallons in the largest pot I own, the pot I use for stock (more on that later), and a half pint of heavy cream for richness. The heavy cream is not necessary, just makes it taste really good. 



One thing is you don't want to crank the heat on this and bring it straight to a boil. It will scald and it won't turn to cheese. You want to set it on med low and let it slowly come to temp. You want it to boil but very slowly. Make sure you stir the bottom of the pot so you don't scald the milk that just sits there. The temperature you are going for is 180 degrees. But I just eyeballed it. I looked for a few bubbles to come to the surface.

It has just began to curdle

Once you get to 180 you want to add in your vinegar and salt. You will see it immediately form curds. Stir as little as possible now. Turn the stove off and let it just sit there and curdle. Make sure that you stir the bottom of the pan if you leave in on the stove, otherwise you will get scalded cheese. 


While waiting for it to curdle line a strainer with a towel or cheese cloth. Once it has become a giant mass of curds start ladling it into your strainer lined with towels. My suggestion would be don't make 2 gallons at once unless you have enough towels to strain that much and a place to hang them. 

My towels loaded with cheese

I took the curds and filled my towels and used ribbon to tie them up. I then hung a wooden dowel over my sink and tied the cheese filled towels to it. I let them drain until I couldn't see any more whey coming off them anymore. It took about 2 hrs. 

Once drained scrape all the cheese into a storage container and it is ready to use for whatever recipe you want it for. It can be stored in the fridge for up to 6 months. 

All this cheese from milk we would throw away otherwise. 

I used mine to make lasagna with homemade sauce. Honey was in heaven. He was texting pictures of it to all his friends. 

Just before I added the cheddar cheese on top