Boy, today turned out to be quite a day of activity in the kitchen.
Dash made oatmeal cookies for breakfast and then rolls for dinner.
And me? I made cottage cheese.
Making cottage cheese is like making yogurt...but it takes zippo time at all!
Unlike my yogurt post, I took many photos of the cottage cheese-making process, so here we go!
You're going to need only a couple things:
- milk
- white vinegar
- candy thermometer
- pot full of water
- clean jar
1) Fill a big jar with milk. It can be any milk, really, and in my case it was 2%.
2) Place the jar in a pot of water on the stovetop. Insert candy thermometer and crank up the heat! To be extra careful, I position a washcloth beneath the jar so that it is not in direct contact with the pot. Allow the milk to reach 190 F.
3) Once it has reached 190 F, remove the jar from the pot and place it on the counter. It will be very hot, so use potholders or something.
Here's where the magic happens. You're going to pour in some white vinegar, stir it around, and watch the curds separate.
I was able to capture this on video, actually, so check it out!!
4) Prepare a strainer in a bowl on the counter, start spooning out the curds that are floating at the top of your jar now, and place in the strainer.
5) When you've spooned out enough of the cottage cheese to clear the mouth of your jar better, carefully pour the rest of the contents of the jar into the strainer. It will catch all the curds, and let all the whey out beneath it.
No joke, until I started making cottage cheese at the end of last year, I never fully understood what "curds and whey" were all about from Miss Muffet's nursery rhyme. Now I (and you) know!
6) Refrigerate the strainer-bowl set-up in the fridge, letting every last ounce of whey drip out of the cottage cheese.
In a couple of hours, you've got yourself a nice batch of fresh, cold, bouncy cottage cheese.
[sorry, no photo! Seemed a little redundant with the last one]
7) Now you're gonna have a bunch of whey leftover. Don't chuck it!! Save it for the myriad uses it has to offer. Personally, I like feeding it to our dog with his dry food. He loves it and I think it does his GI tract well.
And that's it!
Not too shabby and it comes together in a cinch!
I'd say that one gallon of milk makes roughly one pint of cheese. I think? It feels like at least a pound.
Some day I'll do exact measurements, I promise!
Until then, I hope you will try making some of your own cottage cheese sometimes. And tell me how it goes!!
And with that, take care and Happy Cottage Cheese!!
No comments:
Post a Comment