- 12 cups fresh water (3 quarts)
- 6 cups instant dry milk powder
- 1 to 1-1/2 cups white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat the water in a very large pot over
low heat. Stir in the dry milk powder as the
water heats. Heat it gently so the milk
won't burn. When the milk is very hot (about
120°), stir in about a cup of vinegar. Stir
the mixture up gently. Turn off the heat and
allow the mixture to sit for about 10
minutes, don't skip this part. The mixture
has to sit for the milk to have a chance to
curdle. Now there should be a big clump of
white cheese curd in the middle of a pool of
clear amber liquid. Look at it to make sure.
If the liquid is still milky, then you need
to add more vinegar to finish curdling the
cheese. Add a couple of spoonfuls of vinegar
at a time and stir gently. More of the
cheese will curdle and clump up. Continue
until all of the cheese is curdled, and the
liquid is clear. This liquid is called whey.
The white clumps are called curds. You have
made curds and whey, just like Miss Muffet.
Now the cheese must be rinsed. Line a
strainer or collander with cheese cloth, or
a thin cloth napkin, or a clean baby diaper.
Get the cloth wet with a little water.
Carefully pour the big pot of curds and whey
into the strainer. Let all of the whey
strain off. Run a little cold water over the
curds to cool them down, and to rinse out
all of the whey. Squeeze the curds with your
fingers to break them up, and rinse them
thoroughly. Gather up the cloth around the
curds. Squeeze it to remove as much of the
moisture as you can. This part takes a few
minutes. Be patient, and squeeze the cloth
covered ball until it is quite dry.
Now, open up the cloth and transfer the
cheese curds to a bowl or container. You
will have between 1 and 1-1/4 pounds of
cheese curds, or between 3 and 4 cups of
firmly packed curd. Stir the salt into the
curds.
Ricotta or Cottage Cheese: The cheese you
have now will work as ricotta cheese in
lasagna, or pretty much any where else. To
turn it into cottage cheese, add a little
evaporated milk or yogurt to "cream" it and
stir to combine. You can divide the mixture
in half and make some of each if you want to
give them both a try.
There are lots of other things you can do
with this curd too. See the Dairy Section
for details.
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