The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: SallyintNorth on June 09, 2011, 04:35:25 pm
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:yum:
Well I had a go, always wanted to try it. (I do love cottage cheese and figured my own had to be better than bought.)
Using my own starter (from Hillie's own lactobacillus), it took a looooong time to set (I think I probably need to be less mean with the starter - better make some more) but eventually I had a curd.
Cutting it into cubes I found difficult. There was so much whey the whole thing slopped about too much. I think next time I will take some of the whey out, cut the curd up, then put the whey back in and heat it all up.
Stirring (no matter how gently) while heating rendered pretty much all my 'cubes' just little fragments, so at this point I thought I'd probably end up with nothing.
Sure enough, there was a lot of 'body' to the whey - but I have an outlet for the whey so that's not too big a problem, and there was a reasonable amount of stuff left in the cloth.
Washing of course took a pile more bits out so I'll put that out for the hens too, but there was still a decent-sized lump after that was strained.
Finally.... I got to taste it. OH WOW! It's as rich as a shop-bought cream cheese, so I suspect it is not a 'lo-cal / lo-fat' product... but boy is it delicious! It has a very crumbly texture, not any lumps really just crumbs, but isn't wet at all. I am making a second batch right now, and then I'll try some with some of the cream skimmed off the milk to try to reduce the fat / calorie content without losing too much of the flavour.
Oh I am having such fun!
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good for you! i'd love to have a go. are you using your own milk? well not your own of course, but from your own animals LOL
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Yes, lovely creamy milk from my Jersey house cow. She's such a star!