Say "Cheese!"
“What IS that?” A colleague poked at the bread on my desk. It was homemade, sliced from an Italian loaf I plopped on the baking stone without paying special attention to the shape. Next to the bread, I had a mason jar of herbed cheese.
It’s kind of a cross between cream cheese and an overpriced store chevre. The person was trying to figure it out. “Cheese. I made it.”
“You make cheese?” I make a good number of things people think are born at the grocery store. A few people run in horror when they hear “I made it.”
“You’ll get sick!”
“I won’t—and people have been making this stuff for thousands of years.” I imagine someone’s cavemom yelling at them for leaving the yogurt out of the glacier and telling them to eat it anyway even though it was chunky.
And that’s how the first yogurt was born.
Not really.
I discovered “people make yogurt??” living overseas. My milk had some issue. It was gloppy. Just as I was about to dump it out, a German student came to the rescue. “No! That’s yogurt! I’ll take it!”
He was so excited I decided to taste the bad milk.
And it was good.
Cheese is just yogurt’s older cousin. You can make this stuff! Maybe you’re not going to dig a cave and make your version of the French greats, but you can make a spreadable cheese just by neglecting some milk.
Soft cheese is simple… It’s milk or cream turned into yogurt, then drained in a muslin bag. Search “nut milk bag” or “yogurt strainer.” I hang it up overnight, and end up with a container of dripped out water (whey) and the yogurt curds.
The longer I strain it, the firmer the cheese. To get much firmer cheese, I put the bag on top of a metal veggie strainer and I put a cast-iron pan on top.
It’s my Poser Homestead cheese press—as back woods as it gets.
Dump the stuff out of the bag, stir in your favorite fresh herbs, a little garlic, and/or some salt, and you’ve got some delicious spread right there! You can go sweet, too, by stirring in some local maple or honey.
If you’re home on lockdown, take a couple of days and dedicate them to yogurt and cheese.
Then, gross out your friends by calling it “milk that was left out on the counter.”
Because then, there’s more for you.
Short directions:
Get some milk and yogurt cultures (below).
Make too much yogurt.
Dump it in a straining bag (below)
Press the water out if you want.
Herb, salt, and eat it.
RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED:
Cultures for Health
Here’s where I got my original yogurt cultures. There are two types—get the “mesophyllic” (cultures at counter top temp) for easiest results. Here’s the link for a sampler. This can be a lifetime of yogurt—people save cultures for generations.
I like filmjolk for cheese and matsoni for eating, but all work. For these, you put your cultures in milk or cream, cover them, and leave them out for 12-24 hours.
You can short cut this by starting with room temperature milk.
Take a spoon of your new yogurt, put it in tomorrow’s milk, and you’re good to go.
For cheese making day, I recommend making a solid half-gallon of yogurt.
New England Cheesemaking Supply Company
You can get cheese stuff here.
The Cheesemaker
You can get cheese stuff here, too.
Cheese Bags
Those will work. Boil them to sterilize before each cheese and yogurt use, and wash them after. You can sew these yourself.
My favorite cheesemaking book of all time
Ricki Carroll is the “Queen of Cheese.” You may find this simple cheese is a gateway cheese. Read this book either way.