Mastering Basic Cheesemaking: The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home by Gianaclis Caldwell

Author:Gianaclis Caldwell
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781550926170
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2015-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Now you are ready for another set of skills (notice I didn’t say another layer of difficulty). Most of us equate curd cottage cheese — either small-curd or large-curd — as a dieter’s option on menus and a common salad bar choice. We think of it as industrial and inexpensive. The making of cottage cheese, however, is fairly time-consuming, and when made at home, surprisingly will not be so different than the mass-produced kind. I have always been a fan of cottage cheese — I love its simple creamy consistency and tender texture.

The term “cottage cheese” is rather undefined. It originated from the fact that it is easy to make over a few hours while other house chores are also being performed, and so perfect for the farm cottage wife and dairymaid. In the old days, fresh, warm raw milk with a touch of added rennet would have been allowed to sour or ripen for a few hours before the rest of the steps of cutting, stirring, and heating were performed. If you look up cottage cheese recipes, you will most likely find that the majority of them more closely resemble well-drained ricotta with added cream. This recipe, on the other hand, is closer to a European-style cottage cheese, which is also made from naturally soured milk, but instead of adding rennet and stirring, the ripened milk is heated until it curdled (shades of chapter 4).

So just what is this next set of skills you are about to learn? The first is cutting and stirring the curd while heating it, and the second is patience at the vat. This, and most of the recipes that follow, require the cheesemaker to stay put and stir the curd for periods of time ranging from 30 to 60 minutes. For this recipe, I will give you two options: one that allows you to step away for a bit but takes longer, and a quicker method that requires you to stay and stir.

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