Make cheese yourself
Time
Preparation time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hr. 25 min.
It is not that difficult to make soft cheese yourself, even untrained and beginners succeed this determined. The most important thing in the production is that you work hygienically. That means all equipment and vessels must be before the? Cheese? - This is the process called - be rinsed with boiling water. The finished cheese must then be kept cool.
Soft cheese is mainly made from cow's milk, goat and sheep's milk can also be used.
ingredients
For about 800 g of cheese:
- About 12 tablespoons buttermilk
- 6 L whole milk (at least 3.5% fat) or raw milk (from the farm)
- Liquid Lab
equipment
For the first try, you do not have to buy much new. Most of the accessories you have at home and can sometimes even make it yourself.
- 1 big pot
- 1 flat slotted spoon / wooden spoon
- Punched plastic mold / soft cheese mold
- (Cooking) thermometer or roasting thermometer
- 1 whisk / ladle
- 1 long knife or pie palette
- Grooved wooden board or grid or board with extra spout
- possibly thin cheese or cotton towels (cloth diaper)
Vessels for cheese (soft cheese)
They are suitable:
Plastic containers, like sundaes or (yoghurt / quark) pails, which are provided with holes on the bottom and all around.
In special cheese shop you can buy extra containers in different sizes and shapes (round, square, heart-shaped) online.
Also fine-meshed kitchen sieves or salad sieves with holes can be used (maybe the sieve of a salad spinner goes too).
Which milk is suitable?
Basically, any milk is except homogenized. The best is certainly raw milk, fresh from the farm, but this is not for everyone to get. If you are using raw milk, it is recommended to heat it to 72 degrees for about 30 seconds before use to kill possible germs. Just as fresh fresh milk is 3.5% (pasteurized). Also pure buttermilk can be used.
What is Lab?
For the production of soft cheese you need Lab / Labferment, so that the cheese also neatly clotted. It is an enzyme, which is obtained from calf stomachs. The chymosin contained therein acts as a natural thickener in cheese production.
Lab is available in tablet form, as a powder or as a liquid. It can be kept for up to one year if stored cool and dark (fridge). Lab is always dissolved in cold water before use.
You get Labferment online in cheese shops or in pharmacies.
Produce soft cheese
- First, the milk is heated in a pot to 32-34 degrees. To determine the correct temperature, use a (cooking) thermometer or roasting thermometer.
- Then pour the 12 tablespoons buttermilk into the milk and stir everything. Let the milk stand for 30 minutes.
- Then add 30 drops of rennet (5 drops per 1 liter of milk). To do this, first stir the liqueurs in about ½-1 cup of cold water and then gently stir into the milk.
- It then goes pretty fast and the milk is thickened after about 30-40 minutes (it's called the jelly). These are now cut into giffer-shaped pieces using the cake pallet or the long knife. About 1 cm column width. Thus, more whey can flow down further.
- Allow the jelly to stand for another 10 minutes and then, using a ladle, remove small hazelnut- to walnut-sized fragments starting from the top and carefully place the whole break, gradually, in the prepared molds. Work very carefully so that the fragments remain as undamaged as possible. This allows the whey to drain better. Tip: You can also, if you want, the shape / s before laying out with a cheese or cotton cloth, to later turn the cheese better in it and can shape. But it is not necessary.
- To drain, the mold is placed on a grid (or grooved wooden board) that rests over the sink, so that the whey can be collected in an extra vessel.
- After about an hour, the cheese is turned or turned over for the first time. Turn the soft cheese 4-5 times a day.
- After a total of 8 hours, the resulting cheese loaf is rubbed with fine-grained salt. So you leave him one more night in a cool place.
- The next day you can dice the cheese and put it in oil. There are many variations. For example, use olive or sunflower oil and herbs, spices as desired, like chives, Add chilli, basil, garlic or peppercorns.
- Then chill and leave to soak for a few hours or days.
Sharp cubes - a way to spice up the soft cheese
For this one needs:
- 300 g of soft cheese
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1-2 red chili
- 200-300 ml thistle, olive or sunflower oil
preparation
Dice the cheese, peel the chillies into rings and the garlic cloves and mince (can also be left completely).
Layer the ingredients in a screw or mason jar and fill up with oil. The ingredients must be completely covered with oil. Cool and let it pass through.
Whey? Healthy thirst quencher and skin care
The collected sweet whey (also rennet whey) can be used well. It consists of 94% water and is among other things a low-fat thirst quencher, which contains not only many minerals, but also high-quality protein, lactose and vitamins.
In natural cosmetics, a whey bath is popular. It keeps the skin soft and supple and protects it from drying out.
Small cheesecake
Cheese, which results from the addition of rennet, is called Labmilchkäse (also Süßmilchkäse). There are many varieties.
These include u.a. these:
Soft cheeses:
Camembert, feta, brie, cream cheese, gorgonzola, mozzarella ...
Semi-hard cheese:
Butter cheese, many young cheeses, various mushrooms such as cheese, Taleggio, ...
Hard cheese:
Parmesan, Emmental cheese, mountain cheese, raclette ...
Cheese made from lactic acid and sometimes other bacteria with little or no rennet added is called Sour milk cheese, These include, for example, the Harz cheese, farmer's hand cheese or cooking cheese.
