Fresh cheese! By Kira.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On my sixth attempt, I finally succeeded at making simple farm cheese.

This cheese is made by heating milk and then adding an acid to separate the protein.

My past attempts weren't total failures; I got some cheese, just not as much as I should have.

The cheese wasn't clumping together properly and I would lose most of it when I strained it through the cheese cloth.

I was talking with my friend the other day about making cheese and she told me she was cooking it on the cookstove.

So that's what I did yesterday.

I cooked the milk on the woodstove and it worked out.

It may have been that I was heating the milk too hot and too fast.

 

Here is how I made cheese.

You need:

- 4 litres of whole milk

- 1/2 cup of vinegar or lemon juice ( I used lemon juice)

On low heat, slowly warm the milk.

The milk was on the woodstove for about an hour while I stirred frequently.

I brought the milk up to about 170F and held it at that temperature for about 15 minutes.

Remove the milk from heat and gently stir the lemon juice in.

The milk will separate almost instantly into whey and curd.

Strain the curd with cheese cloth lined in a colander.

Once most of the liquid has drained, tie the ends of the cloth together and hang it for about an hour to finish draining.

Add salt to the cheese and it is ready to eat!

We feed the whey to the dogs and chickens.