It Ain't Government Cheese

[Pete_C]

I was at the grocery last week and they had half gallons of milk which were nearing the sell by date on clearance for 25 cents (yes 4 half gallons for a dollar) ; so I bought six.

Needless to say we could not drink them all before they began to go sour; but this is a good thing.

I had planned on using most of it to try to make home made instant cheese.

I remembered an Iron Chef episode where Chen Kenichi made quick cheese by adding vinegar to hot milk so I thought I would try it.

I did some quick googling and settled on the following technique.

Heat a half gallon of milk to 190F

Remove from heat and add a half a cup of vinegar and stir with a wooden spoon until curds form.

Allow to cool down so curds can firm up.

Strain through cheese cloth or fine sieve and then rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly.

Sprinkle on one half teaspoon of salt .

Well I was intending it to be like mozzarella; but it turned out like ricotta. After setting overnight it firmed up and was solid but crumbly like Feta.

I had used garlic pepper salt rather than plain salt and it is really tasty.

In fact it was so good I decided to make a batch of cheese ravioli .

I too wonton skins (I buy them for 99cents a pound at the chinese food store) the 3x3 rectangles. I stuffed with a teaspoon each of cheese , folded them in half to make 1.5x3 rectangles sealing the edges with a brush of water and dropped into boiling water until they floated and were done.

Gotta say it sure was worth it. Yeild was about a half pound of cheese for a half gallon of milk.

The dogs loved the whey once it cooled, and unlike milk it did not give them gas or diarrhea .

Also , the "sour" milk taste did not come through . It must have been washed away in the rinse or the cooking.

Now all I need to do is figure out the steps to make this more like a mozarella and less like Feta (stringy not crumbly) if that is possible.

Could be that I used lowfat 1% milk , maybe it is the fat content. If so, I can live with the crumbles; it tastes good in ravioli, and on salads; anywhere you would use ricotta or feta, and by varying the seasoning you can have an endless variety of flavors.

Gonna have to keep my eyes open for milk expiration dates when I shop and come back near the date and stock up on cheap milk when they have clearances and make more cheese.

http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/cheese2.html

Hmm appears I may just not have cooked the milk long enough and waited long enough for the curds to get big. Or maybe I just need to press it harder next time.

NO-RENNET QUESO BLANCO (LATIN AMERICAN WHITE CHEESE)

Heat-acid or no-rennet Queso Blanco is a white, semi-hard cheese made without culture or rennet. It is eaten fresh and may be flavoured with peppers, caraway, onions, etc. It belongs to a family of "frying cheeses" which do not melt and may be deep fried or barbecued to a golden brown for a tasty snack. Deep fried Queso Blanco may be steeped in a sugar syrup for a dessert dish or added to soup as croutons. The procedure given here is similar to the manufacture of Indian Paneer and Channa which is made by adding acid to hot milk. Ricotta cheese is also made by heat-acid precipitation of proteins from blends of milk and whey. Latin American white cheese is also made by renneting whole milk with little or no bacterial culture. Rennet Queso Blanco is also useful as a frying cheese because its lack of acidity gives it low meltability.

Procedure -

1. Heat milk to 80C for 20 minutes.

2. Add vinegar (5% acetic acid) at the rate of about 175 ml per 5 kg of milk. Vinegar should be diluted in two equal volumes of water and then added slowly to the hot milk until the whey is semi-clear and the curd particles begin to mat together and become slightly stretchy. You should be able to stretch a piece of curd about 1 cm before it breaks. It may not be necessary to add all of the vinegar.

3. Separate the curd by filtering through a cloth bag until free whey is removed.

4. Work in salt (about 1%) and spices to taste.

5. Press the curd (high pressure is not required).

RICOTTA CHEESE RECIPE

1. Heat fresh whey to 85C. Heating must begin immediately after the whey is removed from the curd to prevent further acidification by the lactic acid bacteria. Some small curd particles will form.

2. Slowly add about 10 ml of vinegar per litre of whey with gentle agitation. You will see more curd particles forming and the whey will become less 'milky'.

3. Pour into a cloth to separate the curds. After the curd is dripped dry it is ready to eat. Use it in lasagna or eat as a side dish along with the main course or use it like cottage cheese in salads.

I think I figured it out; it is probably the fat issue where due to ultra homogenization the fat globules are so small they do not get incorporated and hence the cheese is "fat free" and won't properly melt or become stringy. Could be worse problems than fat free cheese; maybe next time I will try with some cream or butter or even a little olive oil added. I bet that would be good.

[JDoors]

Why does my tummy always start rumbling when I read one of your food posts?

Fresh cheese, yum. And for pennies! Great idea.

[Pete_C]

Having concluded that it was the fat issue; I tried a plain batch and then processed it in the food processor with some heavy whipping cream until smooth and had home made marscapone; excellent with a little strawberry jam on an english muffin or straight on French bread.

Last night I made Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan (well there was just a touch of parmesan) with pepperoni and chunky tomato sauce. Good stuff.

[JDoors]

Rather than relying on whatever happens to be in the milk, can you buy different cheese cultures to create different varieties and flavor profiles? What would happen if you added live yogurt cultures?

Great, now I'm picturing a la-BOR-atory with crackling electricity and an assistant named Igor.

Edited March 31, 2009 by JDoors

[Pete_C]

Yes, once you have made the curds, normally they add in cultures which give the cheese its distinctive flavor and odor before pressing it (if making hard cheese) and salting or waxing it and letting it age.

But I think I will stick with fresh cheeses for now. It was so good it did not last long. Those were some good ravioli and then there was the cream cheese / marscapone and the eggplant/ chicken parm.

I think next batch I will make some Crab rangoon (crab meat and fresh cheese fried up in a wonton skin) and pot stickers (meat, veggies and cheese in wonton wrappers steamed then browned up in a buttered skillet) , or maybe canoli or cannelini .

[JDoors]

Ohhhhh -- Crab Rangoon. I had that for the first time within the last year. Heaven !

[martymas]

pete

have you ever appeared on one of those food shows

on tv

like ramsey

good stuf there yes i agree with JS

when you post my mouth waters

marty

[Pete_C]

pete

have you ever appeared on one of those food shows

on tv

like ramsey

good stuf there yes i agree with JS

when you post my mouth waters

marty

Nope and if asked I would tell them the same thing I told Leo when asked if I wanted to be on CFH for winning the helper contest; STFU I like what I do and like where I am and have no interest in being on TV or going to a state of confusion like California.