Heat the milk to 190°F.
You will need a thermometer for other cheeses but you can get by here turning off the heat just before the milk begins to boil.
Add the vinegar and allow the mixture to cool.
When cool, pour the mixture, which now consists of curds and whey into a colander and drain off the whey.
Pour the curds into a bowl and sprinkle on the salt and mix well.
You may wish to use less salt or more, depending on your taste.
A little cream could also be added, for a more silky variation.
Now the best part, enjoy fresh or use in a cooked dish such as a lasagna!
Homemade Cottage Cheese
sour milk
1 quart hot water
cream
melted butter
salt
Heat the sour milk until it reaches 100°F. When it reaches this
temp., pour into a strainer lined with cheese cloth. Pour over 1
quart of hot water. Let curd hang in cheesecloth until all the whey
has been drained off. In a mixing bowl, add enough cream and melted
butter to moisten the food. Add salt.
Making Cottage Cheese
I’ve just set a big bowl of cottage cheese and I timed myself. Total time, so far, is 10 minutes. I’m working on this article now, and when I finish I’ll spend another few minutes before it is set to drain, nearly finished. And this will provide our family with five pounds of cottage cheese. Wonderful cheezie cottage cheese with no chemicals. Five pounds of that watered down stuff in a cottage cheese carton at the store costs over $12. So who wants five pounds of cottage cheese? Legitimate question. Well, I’ll pack two pounds in a freezer box and pop it into my freezer, we’ll eat a pound fresh, and the other two pounds I’ll press to make a basic cream cheese to use either with herbs on crackers, homemade bread, or in desserts such as cheesecake. I also use fresh cottage cheese in such things as lasagna.
The “hardest” part of making cottage cheese is first setting the starter. While you can inoculate milk for cheeses with commercial buttermilk, you will have some failures as it is sometimes weak and old. You can purchase freeze-dried packets of all-purpose cultures or specialized cultures for such cheeses as cheddar or blue cheese, should your cheese making expand. (Be warned that once you try the super-simple cottage cheese, you’ll immediately begin thinking of making all of your favorite cheeses.)
Making the cheese starter:
Have several ice cube trays on hand to hold 2 quarts. Check the cube sizes to see if they are 1 or 2 ounces, as you will need a measured amount of starter later on.
Sterilize a half-gallon canning jar and lid by boiling for 10 minutes. Set the jar to cool, upside down. Pour fresh, strained, warm-from-the-animal milk into the warm jar, then put the lid and ring on snugly. Place in a water bath canner full of hot water, totally immersing the jar. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmering boil for 30 minutes.
Remove jar from kettle and let it cool to room temperature. The milk will be about 72°F. Inoculate the milk quickly, adding the starter, then put the cover back on and gently rotate the jar to dissolve the starter, mixing it thoroughly with the milk.
Wrap with a couple of towels and hold at 72°F for about 16-30 hours. You can use a yogurt incubator or simply set it over the pilot of your gas stove or some other inventive place. When done, the milk will be firm, like yogurt. As you won’t be making 100 pounds of cheese, and as the starter will only remain good for about 3 days, it’s easiest to freeze the batch using ice cube trays. Cover the full trays with foil or plastic wrap and freeze. When hard, dump all the trays out into double baggies and store in the freezer. You can use all these cubes in the future for making cheeses, sour cream and other dairy products requiring a starter. Needless to say, I choose one day to make the starter (which only requires about an hour, all totaled) and another day to set my first batch of cheese.
Large curd cottage cheese:
1 gallon whole goat or cow milk
4 oz. of cheese starter (see recipe above)
1 tsp. rennet solution (4 drops liquid animal rennet mixed in 1/3 cup warm, boiled water)
(makes about 1½ pounds)
1. Fill sink with very hot water. Pour the milk into a stainless steel kettle or deep glass container. Place a dairy thermometer in the milk, and wait until it reaches 72°F.
2. Add the cheese starter and 1 tsp. of the rennet solution. Stir well. Cover the container and allow to ripen at 72°F for 24 hours or more until it sets into a thick, custard-like curd.
3. Line a colander with a damp cheesecloth and pour in the curd. Catch the whey and feed it to the pigs or chickens, or save for other uses.
4. Gather up the cheesecloth, tie it closed with sturdy clean cord, and hang up the bag of curds over a bowl to drain over night.
5. Turn the cottage cheese out and serve cold or use it in any recipe.
You may save some, pressing it very firmly in any innovative mold (tin can with holes, PVC mold, etc.), which will result in a cream cheese type texture, used as a spread or even in cheese cakes. We add fresh herbs, fruits, and even ground nuts to our cottage cheese and pseudo-cream cheese, and never have leftovers. Total cost of a pound and a half of cream cheese, if you have your own milk, is about 12 cents.
Want it even cheaper and quicker? I often use this method.
Heat one gallon of fresh, warm milk to 180°F and remove from heat. Add ¼ cup cider vinegar to the milk. The curd will form immediately. Drain in cheesecloth for several hours. Now it is cottage cheese. Or you can further press it into a semi-soft, cream cheese type product. Total cost is about three cents.
Recipe By: Jackie Clay
Homemade Cottage Cheese
Cottage cheese is the easiest cheese to make - and possibly the best known of all the soft cheeses. It's a good way of using up an oversupply of milk.
1 litre milk
4 teaspoons boiled water, allowed to go cold
2 junket tablets
Pinch of salt
1 dessertspoon cream (optional)
Chopped herbs like chives, coriander or mint (optional)
In a saucepan, carefully heat milk to 38°Celsius (100°Fahrenheit). Dissolve the junket tablet in the boiled water. Stir into the lukewarm milk. Leave for 20 minutes in a warm place.
Slice the curd into cubes, and wait five minutes.
Now tip the curd into a square of cheesecloth and tie it up to drain over another bowl, for three or four hours.
Remove the curd from the cloth and cut it up with the tip of your knife. You can now add other ingredients such as herbs or even honey.
Recipe By: Chef Rob Scott
The Icons below will guide you to the Cottage Cheese Recipe Pages
