Beyond the cheese making process, many cheeses pleasantly evolve with age. Cheddar cheese curds are not one of them. Cheese curds
typically should be eaten within one day of making. This beloved squeaky cheese snack originated in Wisconsin and it’s hard to find in less dairy-centric parts of the country. (Though we did just spot some in Toronto. Go figure!). If your friends and family are wary of your homemade cheesemaking efforts, this is one crowd pleasing snack that everyone will enjoy.

We were were delighted to come across this comprehensive guide to cheese curds on The Nibble. In addition to the history and how cheese curds are made, the article includes wine pairings for cheese curds. Ready to get started?

From what we hear, strangely, regular folks don’t make cheese curds. They buy cheese curds from farms and creameries and local grocery stores in the northern Midwest. Hence, it’s hard to find a specific recipe for making them. But this presents a welcome challenge to the enthusiastic cheesemaker. To make cheese curds, we suggest you proceed as you would any cheddar or monterey jack cheese, curdling the milk until curds form, draining the whey, and drying the curds for several hours until they are ready to eat, making sure they are uniformly bite sized. Once salted, the curds can be eaten as is, bearing a signature squeak and unique texture. They can also be flavored with garlic, jalepeno, or spices like paprika. Coat with breadcrumbs and deep fry any that are still around after a day.

Not ready to make your own cheese curds yet? Check out Cheese Curds and Batter from the Wisconsin Cheeseman, which includes yellow, white and garlic dill cheese curds.

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1     gallon whole milk
3/4     cup heavy cream
2     teaspoons kosher salt
1     teaspoon liquid vegetable rennet
1/4     cup cold water

1. In a large heavy soup pot, combine the milk and cream. Gradually bring to a boil. As soon as the milk begins to foam up and climb toward the top of the pan, turn off the heat. The temperature of the milk mixture should be about 200 degrees.

2. With a large spoon, skim the foam from the milk. Pour the milk into a clean saucepan, leaving behind any scorched milk adhering to the bottom. Add the salt and stir until dissolved.

3. Let the mixture cool to about 100 degrees, skimming off any new foam skin that forms on top of the milk.

4. In a bowl, combine the rennet and water. Stir it into the milk mixture until well distributed. Let stand, undisturbed, for 10 minutes until you can see that the milk has thickened.

5. With a wooden spoon, cut a crisscross pattern through the center of the pot. Stir quickly with the wooden spoon for about 15 to 20 seconds to break up the coagulated milk. Then, using a perforated stainless skimmer, slowly and gently circle the pot in one direction (it should take about 20 seconds to make a full turn around the pot) and watch as the milk begins to separate into curds and whey. Continue the slow, gentle stirring motion with the skimmer, moving the curds toward the center of the pot until they have gathered into a large mound in the center with the whey surrounding them. (Some curds will remain with the whey.) This can take up to 5 minutes.

6. Line a colander with cheesecloth. Gently and slowly pour the whey into the colander. Use the skimmer to return any curds in the cheesecloth to the pan. Using the skimmer, gather the curds, disturbing them as little as possible, and gently spoon them into the baskets, mounding as high as needed.

7. Set the baskets to drain in plastic containers or bowls and let stand at room temperature until the whey no longer drips from the cheese baskets, emptying the liquid several times during the process. This should take about 2 hours. Expect quite a bit of whey to drain from the curds. The ricotta can be eaten at this point or refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.

Adapted from Rosetta Constantino

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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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