Ingredients
- 1 gallon pasteurized whole, 2% or skim milk
- 3/4 cup white vinegar
- To taste: Natural salt or kosher salt (salt that doesn't have any additives in it; one of my pet peeves is that regular salt has dextrose in it - sugar!)
- Heavy cream or half and half, to taste.
Supplies
- Milk thermometer
- Large stainless steel spoon for stirring
- Clean tea towel or layers of cheesecloth or butter muslin
- Colander
- Large bowl that a colander fits into but doesn't touch bottom
- Twine
- Heavy bottom stainless steel pot that holds one gallon of milk.
Directions
- Pour the milk into the pot and put it on medium heat.
- Heat it to 120 degrees and then remove it from the heat.
- Gently pour in the vinegar. By the way, the vinegar will not affect the taste one iota.
- Stir it gently for a minute or two. You should see the curd separating from the whey. Make sure that vinegar is stirred all the way through the milk or you might not get it all curdled. I found this out the hard way. Waste of milk!
- Cover and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Place a colander lined with a tea towel, 2 layers of cheesecloth or one layer of butter muslin over the large bowl. Pour the curdled milk into the colander. Let it drain for 5 minutes or so. Pour out the whey or save it for the hens.
- Gather up the edges of the cloth and tie twine around the gathered edges. Hang the bag from the handle on one of your cabinets and let the bag drain into the bowl for 30 minutes or more. Once cool squeeze more whey out as best you can and put the curds in another bowl. Add the salt while breaking it up into bite size pieces as you mix. If you are going to eat it right away you can now add the cream. If you aren't you can put it in the fridge and add the cream later when you want to eat it.
I have been on a mission to drastically salt from my diet. I know I can’t or shouldn’t eliminate all of the salt because sodium is actually necessary for your body to function properly but when you have high blood pressure (like I do) or just want to eat a natural diet (like I do) you will find that most store-bought prepared foods are high in sodium. For example, look at the label of your natural foods and you will be very surprised. I was!
Fortunately, many foods are not hard to make yourself, and then you can control how much sodium (or other bad stuff) goes into your body. Living a natural lifestyle is within reach of everybody. Let’s get back to the foods that grandmother or great-grandmother ate and didn’t think twice about it.
One thing I want to eat more of but has too much salt is the cheeses of the world. I’m French. I love cheese. How do I get to eat more cheese and eliminate the salt? The answer is trés simple. I make my own.
Today I am making homemade cottage cheese and it turns out that it couldn’t be easier.