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VirginBrewer

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I've never made cheese before but would love to! Can anyone tell me the simplest way to make cheese to start me off?

Much appreciated!!
 
The simplest way is to make a soft cheese, like queso blanco or queso fresco. I have goat's milk, so I make a chevre that is wonderful!

You need milk that has not been "ultra pasteurized", and just a few ingredients. I bought a cheesemaking kit, but you could easily just buy the simplest culture/rennet combination and some cheesecloth.

Here's my favorite, easy cheese website: CheeseMaking - Online Store

And my favorite and simplest recipe: Fromage Blanc ... the details!
 
Here's an easy one for paneer, no specialty ingredients needed:

You will need a gallon of milk, and a lemon or lime, along with some cheesecloth or muslin, and a strainer/colander I find the steamer basket for my rice cooker works pretty well.

Get 1 gallon of milk. Raw, unpasteurized milk is best, but pasteurized is OK if you cannot find anything else. Don't use "ultra pasteurized" milk, though.

Heat the milk in a big, clean pot. Some people heat it to a boil, but that isn't really necessary. What you really want is to heat it to just below the point at which it will boil. Keep stirring things so you don't get gunk building up and scorching on the sides of the pot.

Once you get up to temp, squeeze in the lemon/lime juice. You want to add around 2-3 tablespoons for a gallon of milk. Continuously stir the mixture and pretty soon you will see the curds separate out of the milk, so that you are left with a watery solution that has lots of little white blobs floating around in it.

When this happens, get your cheese cloth ready over your strainer/colander, and pour the milk over it so the cheesecloth can catch all the curds, letting the liquid fall through. Save a bit (maybe a cup or so) for later. You can save the rest of that water and reuse it to make various other interesting things if you like, or just dump it if you don't care.

At this point, wait for it to cool off enough to work with, then bring up the corners of the cheesecloth/muslin and squeeze a bit to get the liquid out. I like to tie the cloth up into a tight ball and just hang it from something so the liquid can drain out, then come back in a couple of hours.

Mush all the curds together and start kneading it like you would bread dough. If the curds are too dry and the mixture brittle, add a bit of the liquid you saved a little at a time in VERY small amounts, like a teaspoon or tablespoon, until it becomes more malleable. Once you have it to the proper consistency, form it into a ball (or a round, or whatever) and wrap it up in plastic. I usually form it into a ball, then stick something heavy on it in a round tupperware container so it forms a nice cylindrical round.

At this point you are pretty much done. I personally like to make paneer tikka masala or saag paneer with mine.
 
Thanks a lot for the advice!! Been really useful! I will definitely start making some cheese!! Thanks again!
 
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