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Project 3: Homemade Dairy Products

Why would you want to do this? It’s fun, it’s educational, and you’ll impress yourself and your friends with the tasty results.

Why wouldn’t you want to do this? You are lactose intolerant, you don’t like cheese or yogurt, you don’t want to buy extra gallons of milk, or you don’t have access to fresh farm milk.

Is there an easier way? No, but it only gets easier the more you do it!

How is this different from the store-bought version? Homemade versions have a richer taste—truer is how I describe it, and I believe it is because they are fresher than manufactured products.

Cost comparison: For less than the cost of buying these products from the grocery store, you can buy the materials and ingredients and have a larger yield.

Skills needed: Basic cooking skills and patience.

Further refinements/learn more about it: Keeping notes about your successes and failures will help you refine your technique. Learn from Ricki Carroll (the “Cheese Queen”) and her book, Home Cheese Making (Storey, 2002), the source of the cheese recipes that follow. Her website, www.cheesemaking.com, offers plenty of advice as well as materials and ingredients. Cheese It! (i-5 Press, 2012) by Cole Dawson is a detailed, descriptive guide geared toward novices.

The process of making your own milk-based products is a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I encourage everyone to try it at least once. If you don’t like the taste of what you’ve whipped up, don’t throw in the towel right away. Give it another try—or, better yet, several more tries—before you concede defeat. There are so many subtleties and nuances to cheeses and yogurts that making them can be an addictive hobby once you get the hang of it.

I am fortunate to be able to keep dairy goats, so I have a constant supply of fresh milk. I have to figure out ways to use it because fresh milk doesn’t keep as long as processed milk does, and the goats give us more than we can drink. All of the projects discussed here can also be done with store-bought milk.

You’ll have to decide if the price and process of purchasing the materials and ingredients are worth it for you (although the cost is still less than grocery-store prices), but making your own dairy products is fun, and the results are tasty.

Materials for Each Project:

•Large (8-quart or larger) nonreactive stockpot (stainless steel or enameled)

•Measuring cups and spoons

•Slotted spoon

•Long-handled wooden or plastic utensil for stirring milk

•Thermometer that registers from 40 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit (boiling)

Chèvre Cheese

I make chèvre on a weekly basis—it is one of the easiest tasks I have, and it gives us (and my customers) a steady supply of a versatile cheese. This recipe is shared with us courtesy of Ricki Carroll from her book Home Cheese Making (Storey, 2002).

Ingredients/Additional Materials:

•1 gallon whole milk (goat’s milk is best, but cow’s milk is fine)

•1 packet chèvre starter

•Colander or fine strainer

•Optional: Cheese mold with drainage holes

Step 1: In a large kettle, heat the milk to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: Turn off the heat and add the starter, stirring gently until it is well incorporated. Move the kettle to a back burner and let it sit, covered, for twenty-four hours.

Step 3: Uncover the kettle. You’ll see a solid white mass in the midst of milky-looking water because the milk has separated into curds (the solid proteins) and whey (the liquid remaining after the curds coagulate). Pour the contents of the pan into a fine strainer or colander (or a cheese mold with holes), making sure that all of the solid curds end up in the colander/strainer or mold. Optional: Scoop the curds first into a large bowl and mix them with herbs and seasonings, and then pour them into the colander/strainer or mold for draining and shaping.

As the curds solidify, they begin to pull away from the sides of the stockpot.

Step 4: Pour any last bits of curd or whey out over the curds, letting the whey strain through. Let the curds sit in the colander/strainer or cheese mold until well drained, from twelve to twenty-four hours. Longer draining time will yield a drier result.

Note: If you drain the cheese in a cylindrical cheese mold, it will form a tube shape; when the cheese is fully drained, you can roll it in flavorings such as crushed dried herbs, coarse ground pepper, or sesame seeds.

Store the finished product in a covered container in the refrigerator; eat it within a week.

Finished chèvre, coated with herbs and spices.

Mozzarella Cheese

Ricki Carroll has also shared her mozzarella recipe from her book Home Cheese Making (Storey, 2002).

Ingredients/Additional Materials:

•1 gallon whole goat’s or cow’s milk (whole milk is best, though 2 percent will work; pasteurized milk is fine, but do not use ultra-pasteurized, which does not allow the cheese to set properly)

•¼ cup unchlorinated water

•Food-grade citric acid (available from a brewer’s supply or where cheese-making supplies are sold)

•Rennet*, in liquid or tablet form (available at some grocery stores or from cheese-making sources; vegetarian rennet is also available)

•Optional: Cheese salt (such as kosher salt), to taste

•Microwaveable glass bowl

*Junket rennet comes in tablet form and is weaker than real cheese rennet. If using junket rennet, use a whole tablet instead of a quarter where specified.

Step 1: Dissolve 1½ teaspoons citric acid in ½ cup room-temperature unchlorinated water. Set aside.

Step 2: Dissolve ¼ teaspoon liquid rennet or ¼ of a rennet tablet in ¼ cup cool unchlorinated water. Set aside.

Step 3: Put the thermometer into the stockpot and pour in the milk. At 55 degrees Fahrenheit, add the citric-acid solution and stir gently but thoroughly. Heat the milk to 90 degrees over medium-low heat—it will begin to curdle.

As you heat the milk and citric acid, the mixture will start to curdle.

Step 4: Gently stir in the diluted rennet solution, mixing thoroughly but carefully. The milk will begin to coagulate.

Step 5: Continue heating the newly formed mass of curds to 100–105 degrees and then turn off the heat. The curds should be pulling away from the sides of the pot, and you will see what is called a “clean break” if you insert the stirring utensil (meaning that the curds split cleanly around the utensil). If the curds look like thick yogurt and the whey is clear, you are ready to scoop out the curds with the slotted spoon. If the whey is still milky, wait a few more minutes.

Step 6: Using the slotted spoon, scoop the curds out of the pot into the microwaveable bowl, letting the whey drain into the pot as much as you can with each scoop.

Step 7: Press the curds gently with your hands, pouring off as much of the whey as possible, either into the sink or back into the pot.

Step 8: Microwave the curds for one minute on high. Remove from the microwave and gently fold the cheese over and over onto itself—like kneading bread—with a spoon or with your hands. You want to distribute the heat evenly throughout the cheese to get it to the stretchy taffy stage (see Step 9), where it is smooth and elastic. Knead quickly so that you do not burn your hands.

Step 9: Microwave the cheese on high two more times for 35 seconds each time, kneading again after each heating. When the cheese is shiny and stretches like taffy, it is done. If the curds break instead of stretch after the third heating, they are still too cool; microwave them for another 35 seconds.

Note: If desired, add salt after the second heating. I start with 2 teaspoons but often add more to taste.

Step 10: When the cheese is done, roll it into balls, stretch it into sticks, or braid it while it’s still warm; it gets less malleable as it cools down. Drop the shaped pieces into a bowl of ice water to cool them quickly; this will also produce a consistent texture. The cheese is best to eat warm but is firmer when chilled; however, I think that the texture is marvelous either way.

Store the mozzarella in the refrigerator in plain or lightly salted water (“brine”) for up to a week. Ours seldom lasts that long because it’s so tasty.

Finished mozzarella, braided.

Yogurt

I have a yogurt maker, which is just a machine that holds the yogurt at a consistent temperature for the required time for it to set properly. It’s nothing fancy, and yogurt can be made without one. If you don’t use a thickener, the yogurt can be fairly runny, but it’s still good to pour over granola or add to a smoothie. I just add fresh fruit and a bit of honey to my yogurt when it is done setting, and it suits my family fine.

Ingredients:

•1 quart milk, any type

•¼ cup dry milk powder (as a thickener)

•1 packet yogurt starter or 2 Tbsp yogurt with live cultures

•Optional: 1 Tbsp thickener, such as carageenan, pectin, or gelatin (as a substitute for or in combination with the dry milk powder)

Step 1: Combine the milk, milk powder (if using), and thickener (if using). Heat the mixture to 180 degrees Fahrenheit slowly and carefully. You don’t want it to boil, and stirring it constantly should keep it from scalding.

Watch your temperatures carefully. Use a thermometer for both the heating and cooling steps.

Step 2: Let the milk cool to 116 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the starter and mix well.

Step 3: Keep covered at 116 degrees for at least six hours or until the yogurt has set to the consistency of thick cream. This is where a yogurt maker is helpful, but if you don’t have one, there are various other methods. Some people preheat the oven to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, turn off the heat, and put the yogurt in overnight with the oven door closed. Some people use a slow cooker on low or a camping cooler with open jars of hot water surrounding the milk. Refrigerate and serve cold. The yogurt keeps for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

Starter

The finished yogurt contains starter, so you can save 2 tablespoons of the yogurt to make your next batch. Each time you “reuse” the starter, it gets a little weaker, so when a batch of yogurt doesn’t set at all, you know that the starter has stopped working. Throw out the old batch and open a new packet of starter powder.