Using a simple recipe, everyone can make their own cheese at home.
By Christian Zaplana.
With a simple recipe, anyone can make cheese at home.
How? Using what material? Have not fear, almost everything you need can be found in your kitchen. If you proceed step by step, making soft rind cheese will not demand much of your time.
The cheese that you are going to make will not necessarily look like the cheese you are in the habit of buying. There are three main reasons for this:
- there is the recipe of course,
- there is also the question of location, more or less hot and aired, where the useful bacteria that are naturally present in the milk and in our homes can vary and be difficult to easily control,
- finally, there is the question of the quality and acidity if the milk, something else that we cannot correct at home.
Cheese producers are very very attentive to these variables. If they produce camembert for example, each cheese must be identical whether it is made in January or July. For our own consumption, we do not have the same constraints. We simply want to make cheese that pleases us. In fact, even if you follow my recipe to the letter, the cheese you make will surely not have exactly the same taste as mine. What does that matter. What is essential is to enjoy the process and that is why I am giving you a recipe that is simple: the one I have been using for years...
Small cow or goat´s milk cheese rounds Ingredients 5 litres of full cream fresh milk
1 yoghurt that will be the ferment
15 drrops of rennet
salt
Material 1 ladle
cheese moulds for draining (12 x 250 g)
1 thermometer
1 stainless steel or enamelled steel cooking pot (if you use an electric steriliser for your preserves it will be perfect)
oven or smokehouse grills
How to proceed Pour the milk into the cooking pot (it should be at around 25°C). Add the yoghurt and mix with a whisk. Add the rennet and mix again. Cover and leave to stand for 24 hours.
The next day, your milk will have taken. It will have curdled and have the consistency of a flan. Using a ladle, scoop up the equivalent of a pot of yoghurt of buttermilk that you will use as ferment next time. It will keep for 3 days in the fridge.
Still using the ladle, remove as much buttermilk as you can without ""hurting"" the curds, then very delicately remove the curd and fill the moulds. 10 to 12 shapes weighing 250 g should be enough. They need to be nice and full.
Leave to drain for 24 hours taking care to not leave the bottom standing in the buttermilk. A temperature of 18 to 20°C gives good results.
The next day, you can empty the moulds, but first add a pinch of salt to each cheese. You can salt the bottom when they are turned out onto the grill. Place your grills on a table and with one swift movement, turn the cheeses over onto the grill. The cheese will come out of the mould and you can place the grill is a cool and slightly damp place to mature.
Tip: Cow, goat or ewe - no matter what kind of milk you use, this recipe will make nice little rounds. You can also try blending two or even three milks.
