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Fresh Farm Cheese in 4 Easy Steps

Homemade, soft spreadable cheese. Sounds good, doesn’t it? This simple cheese recipe can be made in four easy steps.

For some time, it has been a goal of mine to make fresh cheese. In all honesty, I was a bit intimidated by the process, but I found this simple recipe that I wanted to share.

It uses plain milk, requires no special equipment, and produces a homemade soft and spreadable cheese. The best part is you can substitute powdered milk for the whole milk and make fresh cheese using your emergency food supply items!

After learning the basic recipe, you can begin changing the flavor and adding your favorite spices, zest, extracts or herbs. My favorite is fresh cracked pepper, garlic powder and Italian herbs.

This recipe only takes about 15 minutes to make and is delicious. So get creative and enjoy!

Fresh Farm Cheese

Ingredients:

2 quarts whole organic milk (use pasteurized, instead of ultra-pasteurized, if available)
2 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
cheesecloth, rinsed

Preparation:

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, over low heat, slowly heat the milk up, stirring often, until it is just about to simmer (about 180 degrees F). Stir in the buttermilk, and then the vinegar, and turn off the heat. Very slowly stir until you see the milk separating into curds (the solids) and whey (the liquid). Leave undisturbed for 10 minutes.

 

2. Line a large strainer with 2-3 layers of cheesecloth, and place over a stockpot to catch the whey. After the 10 minutes, ladle the curds into the cheesecloth, and allow the whey to drain for 10 minutes. Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth, and tie a string around the top to form bundle.

 

3. Tie the string to a wooden spoon or dowel, and hang the cheese curds over the stockpot and continue draining for 30 minutes

 

 

 

4. After draining, remove the cheese from the cloth, and transfer into a container. Stir in the salt and refrigerate. This fresh cheese can be used for up to 5 days. Use as a spread, or as you would use cream cheese, or cottage cheese.

 

 

There is really nothing to this easy starter recipe for cheese. Anyone can do this recipe – trust me. Now that I have learned the basics in cheese making and what to expect, next on my list of cheeses to make is mozzarella – so stay tuned!

 

This article was originally published at Ready Nutrition™ on March 20th, 2012