We are in a time when everything can be done in the home and there is a return to healthy and genuine foods, paying particular attention to homemade food.
It is more and more in vogue to make homemade, apart from bread and pasta, even cheese, either in flakes or you can prepare crescenza or ricotta. The first thing to do is choose the rennet, the coagulating agent that turns milk into curd and, then, into cheese. The choice can be between animal and plant origin, obtained from the milk of unripe figs or milk thistle.
Two essential ingredients, if you want to make good and genuine cheese and do not want to use rennet, are lemon and vinegar, which, thanks to their acidity, are excellent coagulants.
Of course, the first ingredient you have to buy is milk: you can choose between organic and full pasteurized cow’s milk.
With regard to the tools to be used, you have to have: a stainless steel pot, lid, plastic molds, food thermometer, flask, colander, kitchen whisk and rack, which can be in steel or in wood.
Preparation of little cheeses
Little cheeses are the easiest form to prepare if you want to try and make cheese at home. You must also take into account the quantity, in fact, two liters of milk will make about 200 grams of finished product. How to proceed?
- First, you must bring the milk at a temperature between 35 and 39 degrees, depending on the type of cheese, and after reaching it, you must turn off the heat
- Then add the rennet and mix it with plenty of energy
- Then cover the pot and place it in a very hot place.
After about an hour, you will notice that the curd is ready … It will have a gelatinous and dense texture.You can also split it in several parts, then you will have to collect the lumps with a colander and put the contents inside the moulds, pouring excess liquid, which you will notice is the serum. When you have drained all the liquid, you can mix the product in the shape and size that you are most comfortable with and you will have to let it rest for one or two days. You will have to salt it once or twice, especially if you want a more seasoned cheese even for up to ten days. Salting is an important part of the process because it preserves the development of harmful microorganisms and molds, increases cheese taste and dissolves proteins.
If you want to prepare a ricotta cheese you have to keep the excess whey and mix it with milk. Now that you know how to make cheese here is another interesting idea …
Tofu
If you want to make a vegetable cheese preparation also suitable for vegans, you can opt for tofu. It is entitled to be among the recipes for preparing cheese, it is just a different product. In this case, for a small amount of finished product, you will need to have about one pound of soy beans, which is the ingredient you need to substitute milk. The preparation is very similar to the previous one: you will have to let the grains soak for about 18 hours, changing the water from time to time.
Now that you know how to make cheese at home you just have to try it!
