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Post by willowgirl on Aug 15, 2015 14:34:23 GMT
Numb (my resident cheesemaker) made me some cottage cheese, even though he loathes the stuff himself. It took him a couple of batches to get it just right, but the last one turned out fine! I'm having some with fruit cocktail for breakfast. If anyone's interested, I'll get him to explain how he did it!
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Post by susannah on Aug 15, 2015 17:48:50 GMT
I love cottage cheese - I'd definitely be interested!
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Post by wally on Aug 15, 2015 19:17:59 GMT
yes, please share
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Post by shellymay on Aug 15, 2015 22:10:05 GMT
I don't want to make it or know how, I just want you to share what he made so I can enjoy it also
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 16, 2015 0:47:10 GMT
I have to tweak the process a wee bit but I will post it when I do.... I will also post a tutorial thread on HG.
First you have to make Queso Blanco, or as it is known the world over as Paneer, white cheese, farmer cheese, split curd, and 1001 other names but its basically all the same. Bring a gal of milk to a boil, take it off the heat, stir in 2/3 cup of distilled white vinegar, stir lightly and let it set for about 5 min.
Let it set longer than 10 min and you have made Wisconsin Squeeky cheese... or so I read. The curd does squeeek when ya eat it, which is a a little creepy.
Anywho.... the time you leave it set and how it is drained is the point I have to tweak but I think I know what I did wrong the first couple of times. Then once its drained you break up the curds and add some cream to get it creamy. The way I was making it apparently washed all the acid out and made it bland, which was corrected by a little lemon juice. If I drain it differently and handle it differently the natural twang should be left there. We will see once I rid the fridge of the gallons of milk waiting to be processed.
I like the term "Mexican bathtub cheese".... it's a very fair description.
Curds it would seem are curds, no matter how you end up with them and as far as I can tell, the culture method will result in cheese that is just as bland if you process it too much.
A storebought bucket of cottage cheese is made of dry curd with a bunch of stuff added to it (cream and thickeners and acidifiers) to present you the buyer with what what we recognize as cottage cheese.
When I trail and error it out right I will post it. I still have yogurt to abuse into a tub of greek yogurt.... there is a thread on that process at HG also.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 16, 2015 18:48:11 GMT
Ok the tweaked process is as follows...
Get a gal of milk and heat it till it just breaks a boil. Take it off the heat and slowly pour in 1/2 cup of distilled white vinagar while stirring well.
Now you should have a mess of split curdz and whey. Why miss muffet was eating this revolting mess I dunno.
After about a minute of resting, drain this mess and save the curd pile. Do not press it or spin it or anything, you want it to retain a little whey for flavor.
Dump this into a bowl and with the kitchen implement of your choosing chop the curd to your desired size.
Now pour in 1/2 or 2/3 cup of cream, and a few tablespoons of plain yogurt. Both of which you have in abundance if you have a cow.
Mix this mess up and pop it in the fridge... and wait. Stir it up now and then as the cream will settle but over a day it will mostly be reabsorbed by the curdz.
If you want it a little more sour, sprinkle a little lemon juice over it and stir.
Done right you get Cottage cheese, without having to wait 16 to 20 hours for the starter method to culture and make the same curds you'll end up fortifying with cream, however the culture method wont need the yogurt as itll be tangy on its own.
I dont have the time or patience to culture a gal of milk for a whole day, every 24 hr I get 6 more gal to deal with and as long as everyone here says yum its delicious then its good enough.
The cottage cheese eaters here all agree.... its perfect so.... go figure. I can tell if its done right by how bad it smells..... lol
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Post by sss3 on Aug 16, 2015 18:56:13 GMT
Thanks for recipe. How much cottage cheese does this make?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2015 19:08:19 GMT
I like cottage cheese but let it set, rinse, a little sea salt, squeeky is soooooo much better, oh man. Soft cheese with dill, garlic, scapes, wild onion and or chives is good too....James
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Post by jupiter on Aug 16, 2015 21:51:26 GMT
Thank you for sharing!
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 16, 2015 22:18:54 GMT
If you want squeeky cheese, you add a bit more vinagar to the boiled milk, let it set about 10 min for the curd to get tough then squeeze the whey out. It'll squeak your teeth loose
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Post by susannah on Aug 17, 2015 0:29:06 GMT
Thank you for the instructions! I do like squeaky cheese but then again, I'm from Wisconsin. We cheeseheads expect our curds to squeak.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2015 2:50:53 GMT
Same here, the best is to go through the tasting line at Tillamook cheese factory. You can buy it there too. Best cheese EVAAAAH. I can't eat but 1 or 2 pieces but I will suffer a little for the taste. I make all our dairy products from Goat milk....James
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Post by tab on Aug 29, 2015 0:58:49 GMT
I bet this will be good. Probably dh won't like it but I probably will. I looove the vinegar cheese plain, with just a touch of salt. Now that the calf is weaned I should actually have some extra milk and some cream again! Thank you for sharing.
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