The Making of Cheese

It has just come to my attention that it's not very hard to make your own cheese. So I tried it.

The experience was similar to the first time I learned how to crochet: I have taken this string, and I have made cloth. In a society where we don't make things with our hands anymore, things like that are IMPORTANT.

I made ricotta. It was so ridiculously easy, I don't know why we buy it off the shelf, and the flavor is endlessly better.

The ingredients are as follows:

1 gallon of milk
4 cups buttermilk (half of a half-gallon)
a pinch of salt

Step one is the set up.


I used a colander, draped in cheesecloth in a large mixing bowl, though if you have a really fine-mesh strainer you can probably skip the cheese cloth, and if you're not interested in the whey, you can skip the bowl and just do it in the sink (see, easier and easier, right?).

Over medium heat in a big old pot, pour your milk and your buttermilk. Keep an eye on it, but in about ten minutes, the milk will separate into small curds (approximately 170-175 degrees). Pour this into your prepared colander/cheesecloth set up. Add the salt. Allow to sit for approximately 10 minutes (to allow all the whey to drain).


That stuff in the cheese cloth? That's ricotta. If you were to wrap the cheese cloth a little tighter, put some sort of weight on it, and put the whole contraption into the fridge for a couple of days, you'd have farmer's cheese.

This makes enough ricotta for a lasagna in a 9 x 13 pan.