I hate wasting things, and when I learned that you can used out-of-date milk to make cheese, I had to try it. I knew I had to move fast, before the hubs did his weekly, tornado-like cleaning out of the fridge, when he finds all of the little nasty things that I've hidden in the back of the fridge and I get pretty embarrassed that he found my stash of moldy bread stubs that I forgot about or the tupperware container that time forgot.
To be honest, I was trying to make mozzarella, but as with many things I make in my kitchen, it morphed itself into something of its own making and I just went with it.
I was using a vague memory of making cheese with my two sisters when we were young. I say "vague" because I'm usually the one flitting around the kitchen making things look pretty when we three sisters all cook together, not the one doing the tricky parts. So, there I was, staring over a pot of boiling milk in my 80+ degree kitchen last night. The hubs was in the garage, unpacking the last of our things from the move (because he's great like that) and probably trying to avoid the inevitable mess that the crazy lady he lives with was cooking up in the kitchen.
I took about half a gallon of 2% milk, 'case that's what we drink, and poured it into a saucepan. Make sure the pan is at least twice as large as the amount of milk, as it tends to bubble up and the smell of burnt milk is not a pleasant one. Let it boil and then stir in either two teaspoons of vinegar or the juice from 1/2 lime or lemon (basically, something acidic). I used lime juice, which turned out complementing queso fresco pretty well.
Let it boil for a bit longer, 10 minutes or so. You should see the curds separating from the whey. Pour this into a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl to catch the whey. If you have cheesecloth, go ahead and put that into the strainer first. If you don't, you can put the cheese into a double layer of coffee filters to strain out the whey. Squeeze the cheese to get rid of the excess whey. You can either eat it right now or wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap and store it in the fridge (I wouldn't recommend storing for more than two days).
To be honest, I was trying to make mozzarella, but as with many things I make in my kitchen, it morphed itself into something of its own making and I just went with it.
I was using a vague memory of making cheese with my two sisters when we were young. I say "vague" because I'm usually the one flitting around the kitchen making things look pretty when we three sisters all cook together, not the one doing the tricky parts. So, there I was, staring over a pot of boiling milk in my 80+ degree kitchen last night. The hubs was in the garage, unpacking the last of our things from the move (because he's great like that) and probably trying to avoid the inevitable mess that the crazy lady he lives with was cooking up in the kitchen.
I took about half a gallon of 2% milk, 'case that's what we drink, and poured it into a saucepan. Make sure the pan is at least twice as large as the amount of milk, as it tends to bubble up and the smell of burnt milk is not a pleasant one. Let it boil and then stir in either two teaspoons of vinegar or the juice from 1/2 lime or lemon (basically, something acidic). I used lime juice, which turned out complementing queso fresco pretty well.
Let it boil for a bit longer, 10 minutes or so. You should see the curds separating from the whey. Pour this into a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl to catch the whey. If you have cheesecloth, go ahead and put that into the strainer first. If you don't, you can put the cheese into a double layer of coffee filters to strain out the whey. Squeeze the cheese to get rid of the excess whey. You can either eat it right now or wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap and store it in the fridge (I wouldn't recommend storing for more than two days).