How to make cheese

Have you ever asked yourself how to make cheese , as cheese is the best dairy product and it is one of the main ingredients in making the most famous foods such as burgers, pizza, Mexican taco and many other foods.

Cheeses are made from cow, goat or sheep’s milk. Fresh cheeses are those that have not been completely formed . They have a higher moisture content than old cheeses, a smoother texture and better taste. Examples include ricotta cheese, mascarpone, cottage cheese and cream cheese.

Switzerland is the country of cheeses , you can find there any type of cheese , there are some types that need 10 years to be ready to use , anyway that’s not our subject

The method of making cheeses is not the same, there are dozens of types of cheese and therefore there are many ways of making them, in this article we will see a simple recipe with few ingredients that you can make in your home .

For the ingredients you will need

1 gallon milk
Pot to hold milk
Thermometer
1/8 tsp starter culture: MM Series
3 drops liquid rennet, diluted in 1/3 C water
Butter muslin

Let’s start :

Heat milk to 86°F. Stir in starter culture. Stir in 1 tsp of diluted rennet mixture. Make sure you mix thoroughly. Let milk sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

You will know it has finished culturing when it has a gel-like texture. Slide your finger between the curd and the inside of the pot, making sure it separates cleanly. If it does, you are ready for the next step.

If not, let it culture a few more hours and try again. Make sure that your kitchen temperature isn’t too cold –the bacteria are very sleepy below 68°F.

If your room temperature is too cool, try letting it culture in the oven – the light or the pilot light should be enough to raise the temperature to the desired level.

Next, put your butter muslin into a bowl or another pot large enough to hold all of the curd. Using a liquid measuring cup, scoop out all of the curd and place it into the butter muslin.

Then tie a rope around the muslin and hang the curd to drain. It can drain from 5-12 hours, depending on how dry you want the texture of your final cheese.

Remove the cheese from the butter muslin, place in a container, and refrigerate.
Thoroughly rinse the butter muslin in warm water immediately and then hang to dry – it can be used over and over again. The whey that has drained from the cheese has many uses as well.

It can be used instead of water for cooking grains like oatmeal or rice. It could also be added to water for soaking grains prior to cooking. We feed our extra whey to our chickens or pigs.
Your cheese will last about 2 weeks in the fridge.