Instructions and photos after the jump.

Savvy Housekeeping » How to Make Cottage Cheese.

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For this reason, we were thrilled to come across Forging Fromage, and their post on cottage cheese making at home.  Readers shared photos of their efforts, all of which looked delicious and rewarding.

forging fromage: Rounding up Cottage Cheese results…from our first Forging Fromage adventure!.

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Here’s a sample recipe they provide for Michael Chiarello’s version of ricotta.

Napa Style Ricotta Cheese
This recipe is Chef Michael Chiarello. Visit the Napa Style website.

I N G R E D I E N T S
(Makes about 4 cups)

1 gallon whole milk
1 quart buttermilk
Instant-read or candy thermometer
Cheesecloth or clean muslin, rinsed

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Select a sieve or colander with a wide surface area so the curds will cool quickly. Rinse a large piece of cheesecloth or muslin with cold water, then fold it so that it is 6 or more layers, and arrange it in the sieve or colander placed in the sink.
Pour the milk and buttermilk into a large nonreactive saucepan. Place over high heat and heat, stirring the mixture frequently with a rubber spatula and making sure to cover the whole pan bottom to prevent scorching. Once the mixture is warm, stop stirring. As the milk heats, curds will begin to rise and clump on the surface. As the curds begin to form, gently scrape the bottom of the pan with the spatula to release any stuck curds.

When the mixture reaches 175° to 180ºF, the curds and whey will separate. The whey looks like cloudy water underneath a mass of thick white curds on the surface. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Working from the side of the pot, gently ladle the whey into the prepared sieve. Go slowly so as not to break up the curds. Finally, ladle the curds into the sieve. Lift the sides of the cloth to help the liquid drain. Resist the temptation to press on the curds. When the draining slows, gather the edges of the cloth, tie them into a bag, and hang the bag from the faucet. Continue to drain until the dripping stops, about 15 minutes.

Untie the bag and pack the ricotta into airtight containers. Refrigerate and use within 1 week.

Michael’s Notes: I often make ricotta in winter and use it to fill ravioli for the freezer. Typically, I’ll boil the ravioli straight from the freezer, then simmer them briefly in chicken stock with some chard from the garden.

GourmetSleuth – How To Make Cheese – Cheese Making Recipes.

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The lost art of cheese making is making a comeback in today’s modern kitchen. This new hobby is much like that of making your own bureau wanted to allow you to experience the culinary delights of homemade cheese.

Some cheese, like cottage cheese, is rather simple to make but other cheeses may require complex equipment and procedures. If you’re thinking about making cheese at home you may want to start off with the easiest types of cheeses. It would help you in your cheese making endeavors, you can buy kits and supplies that will aid in this project.

To make cottage cheese, you simply need milk, vinegar and salt. what could be easier? To make hard cheeses you need to have a culture of bacteria which will produce the acid which causes the curdling. into cottage cheese recipe below, with vinegar will cause the kernel which makes this an easy way for beginners to start making cheese. As you progress in your experience you can purchase the bacteria culture to make other types of cheese.

Cottage Cheese Recipe

2% milk

Vinegar

Salt

Put a gallon of 2% milk in a pan and heat to 190°F – this will be just before the boiling point.

Add one half cup of vinegar to the milk and let the mixture cool.

This will produce the curds that are so well-known in cottage cheese and these will be mixed in with the whey. What you want to do, is drain off the whey so that you just have the curds and you can do this by putting the whole mixture in a colander or strainer. once you have the kurds separated you can add salt – usually about a teaspoon but you can add to taste.

Of course you can add other things to the cottage cheese like pepper, onions, garlic, cream and other spices to give you a flavor to your liking.

In order to make other types of cheese, the traditional way is to use unpasteurized milk. However, you can rarely find milk that is not pasteurized in this modern society and using unpasteurized milk may be dangerous since it can contain bacteria and other organisms that are harmful to ingest. This is why the process of pasteurization was so important what was invented by Louis Pasteur as the pasteurization reheating kills all the organisms in the milk.

In today’s modern cheese making procedures, one needs to buy a starter much like one does when making beer or wine. In cheese, however the starter is not the yeast but a bacteria. Since the pasteurization process eliminates the bacteria from the milk you need to effectively put this back in.

In addition to the starter you also need rennet was which is an enzyme formally gleaned from cow stomachs but it’s no manufactured and can be purchased probably from the same place where you purchase your cheese starter.

Making your own hard cheese at home can be an involved and particular process. You can actually use any milk – cows milk, goats milk or whatever you prefer and once you become experienced you can make different flavors and types of cheese. While it may seem like a lot of work the rewards are great as this will probably be the best tasting cheese you’ve ever had!

Lee Dobbins writes for cheese.topicgiant.com where you can learn more about the wonderful world of cheese.

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