I Made More Cheese!

Dear Turkey,

Just like the last time

I made real, actual cheese

In just an hour

Smoky Farmer's Cheese

(makes about 1 lb, adapted slightly from One Hour Cheese)

Ingredients:

- 1 gallon whole milk (organic please!)

- 1/2 t turmeric

- 2 t smoked paprika 

- 1.5 t seasoned salt

- 1 t salt

- 1/2 tablet vegetarian rennet (rennet is easy to buy online or at a lot of grocery stores, but if you don't have any and you still want to make cheese, see the recipe that I linked to in my haiku), crushed and dissolved in 1/2 c water

- 3 T cider vinegar

Instructions:

- Combine the milk, paprika, turmeric, and vinegar in a big pot and heat to 95 F (use a thermometer unless you are a cheese pro).  

- Stir in the rennet and continue to heat the milk gently to 120 F. You may need to stir in order to prevent sticking and burning but, if possible, just let the milk sit and watch the curds form. It will almost look like one giant curd floating in the whey. At this point cut the curds into approx. 1 inch squares with a dull knife. Just keep heating everything slowly and only stir as needed; you are simply letting the curds cook in the whey until it reaches 120 F. 

- Turn off the heat and let everything sit for 5 minutes. Use your hands or the back of a spoon to gently knead clumps of curds and see if they are starting to hold together. If not, let them sit for another 5 or 10 minutes. 

- Line a colander with cheesecloth and place this on top of a bowl (even if you don't want to use the whey later, you don't want to accidentally lose curds in case of cheesecloth failure). Pour/ladle the curds and whey into the cheesecloth and let drain for 5-10 mins, helping by squeezing the curds with your hands if you want. 

- Mix in both salts with your hands and squeeze out more whey.

- At this point I pressed the curds in my cheese press because I have one. However you could just as easily put the curds (still in the cheesecloth) in a round dish/tupperware/springform pan with a plate underneath for drips, put something flat like a plate on top of the cheese, and put anything that weighs 5-10 lbs on top of that. Except children or pets.

- After a few minutes, unwrap and enjoy. If the cheese is still really crumbly, chill it in the fridge for a while and press it again. Or just eat it. Really, the whole pressing thing is optional.

Enjoy,

Tofu