Making Your Own Cheese!

[kikoman]

In making Greek yogurt , I noticed that the yogurt was thick and creamy, so I decided to try making some Queso Fresco.

Only 3 ingredients, 1/2 gallon of milk, choice of (rennet-lime juice or vinegar) and salt to taste.

despite doing almost everything wrong the cheese still came out OK.

My 1st try there was no clean break "separation of curd and whey" I reheated the milk this time adding lime juice ,failed again.

Went back to the internet and look up you tube video re. How to make queso fresco. I saw that the milk was doing a slight boil,

re- heated the milk to a slow rolling boil, added some more lime juice and at long last a clean break, I added chile, cilantro and green onion.

I recommend that if you are going to make some cheese, look up the videos on you tube (cheese making).

Cheers:

Edited October 16, 2011 by kikoman

[Carlos Primeros]

You can make the fresh cheese much easier.

Take your fresh youghurt put some salt in it and stir well.

Then pour 500 to 1000 g (or whatever quantity you like) of youghurt into a piece of thin cloth to strain the liquid. Fix it somehow so that it is hanging over an empty bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Next morning the liquid has dripped into the bowl and the remains in the cloth is the fresh cheese. The salty liquid you can throw away.

You can mix it with extra virgin olive oil and some fresh herbs like thyme. In the Middle East this is called Labany or Lebany or something like that.

It tastes great. You can also add freshly ground pepper or chillies or garlic or whatever you like. It is delicious with fresh baguette bread.

The longer you let it hanging in the fridge, the dryer the cheese gets. You have to experiment a bit.

Enjoy

Carlos

[kikoman]

You can make the fresh cheese much easier.

Take your fresh youghurt put some salt in it and stir well.

Then pour 500 to 1000 g (or whatever quantity you like) of youghurt into a piece of thin cloth to strain the liquid. Fix it somehow so that it is hanging over an empty bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Next morning the liquid has dripped into the bowl and the remains in the cloth is the fresh cheese. The salty liquid you can throw away.

You can mix it with extra virgin olive oil and some fresh herbs like thyme. In the Middle East this is called Labany or Lebany or something like that.

It tastes great. You can also add freshly ground pepper or chillies or garlic or whatever you like. It is delicious with fresh baguette bread.

The longer you let it hanging in the fridge, the dryer the cheese gets. You have to experiment a bit.

Enjoy

Carlos

Thank you for your input, I did as you suggested in making my Greek Yogurt , I get that yogurt place it in a cheesecloth and allow the whey to drain out overnight.

I guess ! could let it drain longer and see the resulting cheese. I also want to get more involved in cheese making and try to make "requeson" by boiling the whey until a new curd forms , also make Jack and other hard cheese's.

Do you have any cheese making equipment, such as cheese thermometer, rennet ,and the other additives that help the milk have a clean break.

I need to get some more cheese making equipment before I attempt to make hard cheese, or do you know of any cheese making supply store here in Thailand or in Southeast Asia.

Again thank you for your post!

Cheers:

Edited October 17, 2011 by kikoman

[theseahorse]

You can make the fresh cheese much easier.

Take your fresh youghurt put some salt in it and stir well.

Then pour 500 to 1000 g (or whatever quantity you like) of youghurt into a piece of thin cloth to strain the liquid. Fix it somehow so that it is hanging over an empty bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Next morning the liquid has dripped into the bowl and the remains in the cloth is the fresh cheese. The salty liquid you can throw away.

You can mix it with extra virgin olive oil and some fresh herbs like thyme. In the Middle East this is called Labany or Lebany or something like that.

It tastes great. You can also add freshly ground pepper or chillies or garlic or whatever you like. It is delicious with fresh baguette bread.

The longer you let it hanging in the fridge, the dryer the cheese gets. You have to experiment a bit.

Enjoy

Carlos

Thank you for your input, I did as you suggested in making my Greek Yogurt , I get that yogurt place it in a cheesecloth and allow the whey to drain out overnight.

I guess ! could let it drain longer and see the resulting cheese. I also want to get more involved in cheese making and try to make "requeson" by boiling the whey until a new curd forms , also make Jack and other hard cheese's.

Do you have any cheese making equipment, such as cheese thermometer, rennet ,and the other additives that help the milk have a clean break.

I need to get some more cheese making equipment before I attempt to make hard cheese, or do you know of any cheese making supply store here in Thailand or in Southeast Asia.

Again thank you for your post!

Cheers:

I've never found anywhere over here that sells cheese making equipment, but I get all of my equipment sent over from the UK. There are plenty of ebay shops on ebay.co.uk that will post over here for a reasonable price. I had a cheese thermometer, rennet and a few packs of freeze dried cultures and lipase sent over recently and it arrived within 4 days of ordering.

I recently brought my cheese press over to Thailand and have been playing around with making cheese again, so far I've been sticking to the fresh cheeses too, but I have a few days off next week and plan to use my press and make some hard cheese again.

Good luck with the cheese and let me know if you need a company to buy the equipment from, I'll pass you on the details of who I've used.

[kikoman]

Theseahorse,

Yes I would like to have the details of your cheese making equipment lead, I would prefer to buy my equipment in SE Asia if there is any available.

Only because of the high cost of shipping. If you will let me know what your order weigh and how much was your shipping cost, you cam PM me with that info.

Thank you

[theseahorse]

I'll try and PM you with the deatils over the next few days (sorry, busy week). But take a look on ebay, it will tell you how much to post here and most things you'll need are very light. I think it was about 5 GBP (250 baht) to post a floating thermometer, 50 ml rennet and a few packs of culture and lipase powder.

The one thing that will weigh a bit more will be your cheese press. I use a press called a 'CheesyPress' it's not great, but it's a good press to start off with and is built for 2 gallon batches so perfect for the amatuer. Google it and take a look on thier website as they actually have the instructions on how to build it there too. You could probably get one made very cheaply here.

[Carlos Primeros]

Kikoman,

No, I do not know any stores selling cheese making items here in Thailand.

I stick to the fresh cheese making anyway. Hard cheese is too difficult to make for my taste.

So I enjoy my fresh cheeses.....

cheers

Carlos

[kikoman]

Kikoman,

No, I do not know any stores selling cheese making items here in Thailand.

I stick to the fresh cheese making anyway. Hard cheese is too difficult to make for my taste.

So I enjoy my fresh cheeses.....

cheers

Carlos

I was raised on fresh cheese, and I enjoy it very much, I will try to make some hard cheese like Cheddar, Monterrey Pepper Jack.

If they are to hard to make I will fall back on the fresh cheese for most of my cheese needs and purchase much less Cheddar then I do now.

Thank you,

Cheers:

[tutsiwarrior]

I've made cheese with boiled milk and lime juice and it goes well in salads and yeah its about the same consistancy of queso fresco, and I could get cheese cloth in the local market in Thailand!...queso fresco and panela are usually called farmer's cheese in the US, correct me if I'm wrong, but are usually known by their Spanish names around LA...I developed a taste for these fresh cheeses in Bolivia where the campesinos make them and are quite tasty...usually called 'quesillo' and eaten with fresh rolls for breakfast...

[MrRed]

Good link into the biology of making cheese

[NanaFoods]

I'd really like to try making some Jack cheese... I don't recall ever seeing it in Thailand, at least not near where I live. But I used to use it quite regularly back home -- kinda miss it....

[kikoman]

Tutsiwarrior.

You are right most fresh cheeses are all most one of the same, Queso Fresco, Queso Blanco, Paneer, Farmers cheese, Ricotta, etc. Imuris Sonora was famous for its requeson cheese, which are known as "quesadillas" the re-boiling of the whey resulted in this cheese that was thinly shaped the size of corn tortillas, and were great eating roll-up in a freshly cook hot corn tortilla.

Mr Red, Thank you for the link on making cheese.

Carlos, Keep on making your cheese and Thank you for your imput.

Nana Foods, I saw Monterrey Jack cheese on the products list of "Caroline s cheese" and also another cheese company in Pattaya, if you can't find any, I may be able to give you some.

Cheers:

Edited October 19, 2011 by kikoman

[wintermute]

Interestingly enough I use the same recipe to make ricotta with lemon juice. The consistency of the cheese depends on the temperature you heat the milk at. At 160 you get more of a ricotta type cheese. At lower temperatures it's creamier and then you can let it set for a few hours to get a spreadable cheese.

[silsburyhill]

I'd really like to try making some Jack cheese... I don't recall ever seeing it in Thailand, at least not near where I live. But I used to use it quite regularly back home -- kinda miss it....

Villa have it.

[NanaFoods]

Nana Foods, I saw Monterrey Jack cheese on the products list of "Caroline s cheese" and also another cheese company in Pattaya, if you can't find any, I may be able to give you some.

Cheers:

Interesting, kikoman. I saw they have colby and mozz as well. Hmmmm.

I hope they deliver... I guess I'll be contacting them.

Thanks much for the referral :jap:

[tutsiwarrior]

seems to me that for cooking purposes mozzarella can be substituted for monterry jack, like for a topping for CA style tacos but not for a snack on it's own...

one time in Hanoi I got some imported monterry jack with chiles from a western food shop and I wept from the remembrance of things past (hadn't had any in over 20 years...)