Making cheese the easy way

An online buddy of mine – we’ll call him Bob (and he’ll be showing up in posts here on a frequent basis) – is a genuinely self-sufficient guy. He lives off the grid, and is kind enough to share his methods and techniques for all things grid-less with those of us who aren’t quite at his level yet.

All the techniques below are his. Make, slice, enjoy!

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I thought I share how I make cheese. It is really quite simple and easy to do. It’s a good way to preserve milk if you find yourself with a gallon or two on hand and the power goes out. It can be done with fresh or sour milk. I use goat milk, but I’m sure this method would work with cows milk, even two percent milk. So if you care to try it out, buy and extra gallon or two and have a go at it!
First, sterilize your pot by putting in a half inch of water, cover it, and bring it to a nice boil.
Now throw out the water and bring two gallons of milk to a boil. This can take twenty minutes on my gas stove.

This is my sophisticated cheese press, and some finished cheese.
You can’t see it in the picture, but the can has lots of small holes drilled in the bottom and lower sides.

When the milk comes to a boil, add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of vinegar. Stir, and the curds should form pretty fast. If they don’t, add more lemon juice or vinegar. You can use all vinegar or lemon juice, but I like to use a mix of both. To much vinegar can produce a rubbery cheese. The basic rule of thumb is 1/4 cup of either per gallon of milk, but be ready to add a bit more.

This is what it looks like when the curds form

You can use any type of vinegar, and it will indeed make a difference on the final flavor of the cheese. Experiment!

Turn off the heat, and strain the cheese. Use a big strainer lined with cheese cloth, a clean handkerchief or bandana.
Sorry, you can’t make ricotta cheese from the left over whey like you can with cheese made with rennet, but it doesn’t matter.
making cheese this way wastes nothing. The whey should be very thin and watery, and possibly even have a slight greenish tint.

Straining the curds

The whey can be fed to animals ( one of my goats will drink it all right down ) or you can cook with it or water plants with it.

Let the cheese drain for ten minutes, and throw it back into your pot. Now add a tablespoon of salt, and mix it up good. Many recopies call for a tablespoon of salt per gallon of milk, but I find that is double the amount I like to use.

At this point the cheese is ready to be eaten as cottage cheese. It is excellent cooked up in a lasagna.

After it is strained and salted

Or, you can easily press it into rounds with a home made cheese press. Wrap the cheese in a cloth, and stick it in the press. Put a handy weight on top. After pressing for a day or two, it’s ready.
Slice and eat it as it is, and store it in the refrigerator.
The cheese can be easily aged. Leave it on the counter for a few days so it will develop a rind. Then wax or oil it. I tend to let it develop a rind, oil it with any vegetable oil and let it sit a week or two, then wax it. I once had four oiled wheels infested with maggots, so I don’t try to age them to long that way, but some folk manage it just fine.

The press in action

Aged for three to six months, you’ll have something like a good parmesan. Most likely. I have had two inflate like Swiss cheese, and I have heard of them turning out like blue cheese. It all depends upon the microbes that like to infect the cheese where you live.

Waxing a wheel