Homemade Soft Cheese

Coreen Hart
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 153 Feedbacks

You can make a really inexpensive cheese at home. I sometimes use this as cream cheese and sometimes as cottage cheese.

Start with 1 gallon of milk. If it is raw milk from a safe source, you don't have to add a culture. If it is pasteurized, add a half cup or so of plain yogurt. Put the covered milk in a warm place for 1-2 days until it is clabbered like yogurt.

Now put it in a large pan and pour boiling water over it. Put a dairy thermometer in it, and turn the burner on low, stirring until the thermometer reads 110 degrees F. Remove from the heat and let it stand about 10 minutes.

Put it in a cheesecloth-lined strainer and let the whey drain off. You can save the whey and use it like milk for gravies or in baking. When the cheese is drained to the thickness that you want, you can add salt, seasonings, etc. I love it on toast!

By Coreen from Rupert, ID

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Coreen Hart
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 153 Feedbacks

January 24, 20070 found this helpful

Top Comment

I think I'd better answer your questions, although believe me, it's easier than you may think. I wrote it vague because that's what it is. I usually clabber the milk in a gallon jar like a sun tea jar, but I don't know what kind of container you have. Just be sure it's closed so mold spores and dirt don't collect. As for how much cheese it makes, it varies according to the richness of the milk, but it's always over a pound. Whole milk makes the most and the best. The amount of boiling water is not something you measure.

It depends on how much room you have in the pan when you pour it in, and how fast the thermometer goes up. You stir the boiling water in to mix it well. Then turn on the heat and bring it slowly to 110 degrees. If you get it to 115 you will get a firmer curd, which is better for some recipes. Sorry if this sounds vague, but it is not rocket science. I have never had it fail, and I'm not a chemist. It's not like traditional recipes that require everything to be so precise. The flavor is out of this world!

Gina

January 23, 20070 found this helpful

Hi,

After it sits for 2-3 days and gets "clabbered" what do you mean when you say to put it in a large pan and pour boiling water over it? Do you pour the clabbered milk out of the container it is in? How much boiling water? Does the boiling water go around the clabbered milk that is in the container?

Thanks,
Gina

Bonnie Prather

January 23, 20070 found this helpful

Hi, I have the same question as Gina. How much "boiling water" do we pour over the clabbered milk? Also, are we supposed to place the container and the clabbered milk in the pan and then pour the boiling water around it, or pour the clabbered milk into the pan and add the boiling water to that? I would really love to try this recipe, please clarify.
Thanks, BonnieAngel

By L. Stuart (Guest Post)

January 24, 20070 found this helpful

How much cheese does the recipe make? Thanks!

Bonnie Prather

January 25, 20070 found this helpful

Thank you very much for your clarification.

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