How to Make Cheese

Cheese is a common ingredient used in various types of dishes and food items. Though it is readily available in the market, it can easily be prepared at home as well. Those of you, who are quality conscious, can prepare homemade cheese without putting in much effort. All it requires is a little time and patience. Moreover, there are just two ingredients required to make cheese at home i.e. milk and vinegar. In case you are now wondering about the process, read onto know, how to make cheese.

Homemade Cheese Recipe

Recipe#1

Pour one cup of milk in a saucepan and slowly bring it to a boil, while stirring constantly. It is very important to stir the milk or it will burn.
Once the milk boils completely, turn off the burner, but leave the saucepan on the element or gas grate.
Now, add 2 teaspoons of vinegar to the boiling milk. Soon after this, the milk will turn into curds and whey.
Stir the mixture well with spoon and let it sit on the element for another 5 - 10 minutes.
Pass the curds and whey mixture through cheesecloth or a handkerchief, thereby separating the curds from the whey.
Once the cheese gets accumulated in the cheesecloth, press the cheese with the cloth to eliminate all the moisture.
After squeezing out all the moisture from the cheese, open the cloth and add a pinch of salt, if desired.
Mix the cheese and salt and once again press it to remove any extra moisture.
You can either put the cheese in a mold or just leave it like that in a ball form.
To set it, keep it in refrigerate for a while, before eating.

Recipe#2

Ingredients:

Buttermilk (1/2 cup)
Salt (3/4 tsp)
Lemon Juice (1 ½ tsp)
Milk (2 litres)

Directions:

Boil milk in a saucepan and heat it up to 80°C. You can insert a thermometer in the pan and record the temperature of the milk.
After milk boils, small bubbles start appearing on the surface of the milk. At this point, add lemon juice and buttermilk and stir it once or twice.
Turn off the heat when the mixture gets warm.
You will see curds (solids) parting to one side and whey (liquid) left over.
Allow the mixture to settle down for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, take a cheesecloth and place it in a bowl. If you feel, you want it thicker, you can take two such cloth pieces.
After you pour the mixture into the bowl, the water drains through the cloth with the solid part remaining on the cloth.
You can keep it as such for 5 minutes until it is completely drained.
Wrap the cloth properly around the mixture and tie it tightly using a string.
Keep it aside for about half an hour.
The whey part is completely drained out by this time and you have homemade cheese left back in the cloth.
Mix about ¾ tsp of salt to this mixture and break up the curds into blocks.
Transfer the mixture in to a dish and wrap it properly using a plastic wrap and keep it overnight in the fridge so that the flavor and the texture are at its best.
While serving cheese, you can add some olive oil, pepper or chives to present it as a perfect cheese plate. To make it more versatile, you can add herbs or garlic to it.

Yes, it is this simple to make homemade cheese. It comes out really well and indeed is delicious. You surely have to give it a try!

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