See? Slightly less than beautiful. Oh well. I guess I'll have to do it again soon. In lieu of a brilliantly composed photo essay (which maybe I'll get Amanda to help me with the next time), I'll talk you through the simple and extremely gratifying process of making fresh cheese.
You may or may not know this, but milk is not, in fact, a homogenous liquid (even if it is homogenized milk. That means something different, and is unnecessarily confusing. Carry on). It consists of tiny solid particles suspended in liquid. Cheese, in its most basic form, is composed of those milk solids, all compacted together. To make cheese, you need to separate the solids (curd) from the liquid (whey). Remember Little Miss Muffet, eating her curds and whey? She was basically eating coagulated milk. Which is much harder to rhyme, so I can see why "curds and whey" was the more viable phrase.
Anyway, to get from milk to cheese, all you need is heat and a coagulating agent--which in the simplest case is an acidic ingredient like vinegar or lemon juice. You'll need about a cup of acid per gallon of milk (and you can easily cut that proportion in half if you'd like). So here are the ingredients, the equipment and the steps for the cheese that I made last night:
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 gallon of milk--whole, 2% or 1%. I used whole, but that was because that's all the supermarket had.
1/2 cup of lemon juice (I like the slight fruity taste from the lemon as opposed to just the tang of vinegar)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste
EQUIPMENT:
A large, heavy-bottomed pot
A colander lined with a (clean) cotton cloth, like a handkerchief or cut-up t-shirt
rubber band or string
Step 1: Heat the milk over medium-low heat until it's steaming and juuuuust about to bubble up at the sides (this is called "scalding," in case anyone's interested). This should take about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep milk from scorching at the bottom.
Step 2: Toss in your lemon juice or vinegar, reduce heat to the lowest possible setting.Stir slowly. In a minute or so, you'll see the curd start to break up and thicken into lumps. This looks really gross, like sodden cottage cheese floating in a yellowy liquid, but it's exactly what you want.
Step 3: When you see that the curd is totally separated from the whey (when the surrounding liquid is fairly clear and there are plenty of lumps), turn off the heat. CAREFULLY pour the entire potful of glop into the strainer and allow the liquid to drain off.
Ok. At this point, if you just want fresh cottage cheese, congratulations! You're done! If you want a more solid cheese, though, you have a couple more steps to go:
Step 4: Carefully gather up the corners of the cloth and tie off the top like a hobo sack. Make sure there aren't any holes. Run the bundle under cold water for a bit until you can comfortably handle it. Then begin to twist the top of the bundle. This will squish all those lumpy solids together and force the excess liquid out. Continue to squeeze out the moisture until you reach the consistency you want.
Step 5: Empty the drained mixture into a small plastic container and add salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil and a little bit more lemon juice, if you want (or you can add whatever seasonings you'd like. This cheese is very very mild, so it can take a lot of flavoring).
Cool the cheese in the fridge overnight--in the morning, you can unmold it from the container and wrap it in some wax paper. And then you have cheese!
So that was fun. Also, here are some photos of what I had for dinner, because I promised I'd take some:
big ol' lump of bread dough rising.
Swiss chard. A neutral vegetable, if you will.
A Meyer lemon and some kalamata olives to go with the chard
The finished chard. The more I type "chard," the more ridiculous it looks. Chard chard chard.
Soup! Of the butternut squash variety. Made it myself. And by "made," I mean "opened a carton."
YUM.
Your pictures are beautiful and I miss you ridiculously much. I never cook anymore. And i never see you anymore. SIGH.
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