My Experience Making Cheese

I don't eat pork. I stopped buying pork over two years ago, but recently found out that many of the products that I use/eat have pork in them. I say use because even some toothpastes contain pork. Thankfully, the one I bought last does not, but I did find out that most cheeses have the possibility of containing pork. I haven't found out yet how to make cheddar, colby or cheese of those types, but I have found out how to make ricotta type cheeses, and found out that I can make my own cottage cheese, as well.

This was just a test to see how it goes, but I added 2 cups of whole milk (would love to have raw goat) to my pot and slowly brought to a boil over about a half hour. I let it boil in a rolling boil for 2 minutes then turned off the heat. (My pot is cleaned - just stained.) You have to stir constantly so that the milk doesn't scorch.



Then I added about 1 teaspoon of distilled vinegar and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. (These things are what makes the cheese curdle.) I also added salt to my taste.



 I let the mixture cool, while the curd and whey separated, then placed it in a cheesecloth and hung it over a pot for about 2-3 hours.



I just got some cotton string and hung it over a cabinet knob, while propping the cabinet door open.





And here's what I came out with: the whey is on the left and the tiny bit of curd is on the right.



 Ricotta (Italian for cooked twice)

I let the whey sit out at room temperature (covered) for 24 hours, then brought it to a boil slowly (in a double boiler) until it separated into further curd and whey.



Then I allowed it to cool and strained it with the cheese cloth, as above, and here was the finished product. The ricotta is the more firm cheese on the left, and the first cheese (which doesn't have a name that I know of) is on the right.




The cheeses are orange because my husband wanted to add some Sazon, to color it like cheddar cheese, but I do not recommend this as it contains MSG, and you are trying to get more pure cheese. We use this product very limited, usually a little bit on meat (mostly baked chicken).

Love,
Kimberly ♥