This is so simple and with only one needed ingredient (no starter cultures needed, although some cream and salt and pepper would make it even better), and only a little time, I’m not sure this can really be a recipe. But once you make it you will never want store bought cottage cheese again. At the end of the week we normally have anywhere from 1/2 to a 1/4 of a gallon of our raw milk left, I use this milk to make the cottage cheese, everyone in the family looks forward to it.
Please visit the blog link to see step by step pictures of the process if you need them.
Take your milk and pour it into a glass bowl, cover with a tea towel and let sit until the milk has thickened. This should take about a day to two days depending on the temperature of the room and how old your milk is. You can remove the cream from the top, or leave it there and when the milk is ready you can spoon the cream off the top and have sour cream.
The milk should look like yogurt when it is ready. When you put a finger in the milk it should hold the cut. Another way to know if it is thick enough is to place the back of a spoon on the edge of the bowl and press down on the curd lightly. If it pulls away from the side of the bowl without filling the spoon it is ready. But you don’t want it to sit so long that the whey starts to separate from the curd. When it is ready, pour the milk into a sauce pan and set to low.
With the milk on low, stir gently, don’t worry about keeping the curd in one piece it will not stay together and it will need to break apart at some point. Keep it on low, stirring often until the curd releases the whey. This shouldn’t take too long and you will want to keep an eye on it, it should take 5-10 minutes. You will know when this happens because the curd will sink to the bottom and the whey will be on top. When you start the cooking the milk, the whey will start to separate, but as it keeps cooking whey will rise to the top and you will see a definite difference in the look of it.
Once the curds and whey have separated line a bowl with a tea towel or a few pieces of cheese cloth. Pour the curds and whey into the lined bowl and then hang the towel. I put the towel under my stack of dishes. It is not recommended to hang it on your cupboard doors as this can cause the doors to start hanging crooked.
Let this hang until the whey has all dripped out. This can take a while if you just want to let it be, or you can rush it along by squeezing the bag. I find that giving the cloth a few squishes when the whey starts to slow down helps speed up the process also. I let it drip until it drips every couple seconds. This could take 5-15 minutes (if you squish the bag), to an hour or longer if you just let it be.
When the whey has been dripped out the curd is solid but not absolutely dry. You should still feel moisture on the curd. Once the whey has been dripped out, crumble the curd into a bowl, if you are going to eat it right away, or a container to store it in for later.
You can leave it how it is and eat it without cream, or use it in lasagna. Or you can add the cream and salt and pepper to taste. I use about a half a cup of cream per half gallon of milk used, but add how much you like.
A couple extra notes: You can save the cream from the milk you use to put on the cottage cheese when done, or use fresh cream. Because the whey has been heated it does not work well for soaking grains, but you can use it in bread, compost, or for watering the garden.
*It MUST be raw milk, pasteurized milk does not contain the needed enzymes and bacteria, and you will only get sour, spoiled milk. I like to use milk that is about a week old as I find that it gives the best flavor in a reasonable time.
If you brew milk kefir on a regular basis, you will probably end up with extra kefir. When you have more than you can use, here is an easy way to make kefir “cheese.” It is a great replacement for sour cream and cream cheese.
You will need either a cotton or linen bag, or cloth to drain the kefir.
Pour the milk kefir into the bag and suspend it over a bowl to catch the whey that will drip out.
If you don’t have a bag, use a cotton or linen cloth and tie up the ends with a piece of string or a rubber band.
Let the kefir drain for a full 48 hours, then transfer the kefir to a glass container with a tight lid.
Store in the refrigerator.
Save the whey that drains out in a glass jar with a lid in the refrigerator. This live whey is very handy when soaking grains or legumes or starting lacto-fermented veggies.
Once a week, stir the cheese and it will keep fresh for many months.
There are several ways to make mascarpone cheese. Commercially a sort of quick mascarpone is made by using tartaric acid to separate the curds from the whey, but this results in a grainy texture and, more importantly, no active cultures! Some recipes call for a mixture of cream and whole milk and then draining the whey to get a thicker curd, but I am going to share the absolute easiest way to make mascarpone cheese that can even be made with raw milk.
Mascarpone should be silky smooth, thick and rich with a slight tang. It’s super simple to make your very own and you can use it to top pancakes, waffles, dip fruit in, or make your own authentic tiramisu or cannolis.
Place cream into a quart sized mason jar. Add the kefir. Cover loosely and allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours. After this time you should have a thick curd that should not need straining. If it’s too runny, feel free to drain some whey out.
If you used a lighter fat content cream (or half cream and half milk), you may want to strain your curd in some cheese cloth for a few hours to let some whey drain out.
Refrigerate and enjoy! This will keep for a few weeks. 🙂
NOTE: You can also make this by using creme fraiche in place of the kefir if you have it, but I really like the flavor of the kefir mascarpone and think it makes a thicker cheese.
Last week I had an American woman, who labores in the Ukraine, staying with us while she’s on her year-long stay in the U.S. I really don’t know how we ended up talking about yogurt, but she said they make yogurt in a large pot all the time and she could teach me.
We started out with less than a half gallon of raw milk, and these are the instructions that gave us creamy, thick yogurt. There was no need to sweeten or strain it.
Scald milk in a pot to about about 175° F, stirring consistently. You’ll notice a film come to the top of the milk.
Cool milk to 110° F or until placing the inside of your wrist on the pot just slightly bites, but no longer burns. To speed this step, place pot in a sink full of cold or ice water.
While the milk is cooling, fill a large pot about 1/3 with water and start heating to about 110° F.
Once the milk has cooled to 110° F, stir in one packet of yogurt culture or 1/2 cup of whole fat, plain yogurt.
Pour the cultured milk into quart glass jars, with lids loosely screwed on. Then place the quart jars in the large cooking pot that is 1/3 full of water.
Fill the pot with more water or take out water so that the water line is nearly even with the cultured milk line in the quart jars.
Wrap the large pot in blankets and put near a heater or a warm place in your house and let sit for 6 to 12 hours or until yogurt is thick. Check the temperature every few hours; you may need to add more hot water once or twice.
We’re making cultured butter and buttermilk here, this is serious stuff. Seriously simple. Seriously. Why would you want cultured butter over regular butter? Cultured butter has good bacteria. You know, probiotics? Good for your gut? Supports immune system? Trims tummy fat? Yeah, that kinda bacteria. The good kind.
If you are fortunate enough to have access to raw milk or cream like I am, congratulations! All the needed enzymes and bacteria are still in place and you need nothing but good ol’ raw cream and a jar with a lid to make cultured butter.
If you don’t have access to raw cream, I am so very sorry. You will need one pint of cream (No additives. Pure, glorious cream. Check the label) and three tablespoons kefir, yogurt, or cultured buttermilk. Not vanilla kefir or yogurt. Pure, plain kefir or yogurt. And a jar with a lid. OR… If you happen to have some creme fraiche looking for a purpose, skip the pasteurized cream and kefir and just use it (and begin at step two, below).
Store raw cream, or pasteurized cream with kefir or yogurt mixed in (see above for amounts) in a very clean glass jar with the lid screwed on well at room temperature. If it’s raw, it only needs to sit overnight (or 12 hours if it’s winter). If it’s pasteurized (I’m sorry again), keep it sitting out for 12-24 hours, depending on how warm room temperature is (less time for warm, more time for cool). Once it starts looking thicker (swish it around a bit to test it’s thickness), it’s butter time.
You can either churn your cultured cream with an electric mixer (if you own a Kitchen-Aid, use the whisk attachment) or a food processor. The food processor seems to take less time, the mixer takes several minutes. The problem I sometimes have with the food processor (mine is eleven years old, so the newer ones might work better), is that it sometimes leaks the precious cream, and that’s just painful for me. Crank the chosen appliance on. Once you start seeing lumps, you have butter! And buttermilk! Ah, buttermilk! It’s all starting to make sense…
Drain the buttermilk into a bowl. Now use a spoon to squeeze any more buttermilk out of the butter and into the buttermilk bowl.
Rinse the butter with cold water and push out the water with a spoon like you did to get the buttermilk out. Continue doing this (rinse and squeeze) until the water that you squeeze out of the butter is clear. If you don’t do this and there’s still buttermilk in your butter, the butter goes rancid. Rancid butter tastes nasty. Rancid = free-radicals. Free-radicals bad. Squish the butter into a glass storage container and pour buttermilk into a glass jar (remember the picture way up at the top? Yep.)
And there you have it, folks! Cultured butter for the cultured foodie. No need to salt it; it’s flavor is perfect by itself. How long will they keep, you ask? It depends on how fresh your cream was. The butter and buttermilk will keep for a few weeks in the fridge if your cream was fresh. Now go! Make some cultured butter! Your tummy will thank you.
Don’t let it scare you. Creme Fraiche (pronounced crem fresh) is basically healthy sour cream. But much fancier. And you can feel extra fancy knowing it is a key ingredient in fine French cooking. It is simpler than simple to make it.
First, pour a little bit of cream in your quart-sized jar.
Now, pour in all the buttermilk.
And the rest of the cream.
Stir it up.
And put a lid on it, already.
Now, just enjoy watching your cream lacto-ferment while you sit by the fire. Or set it someplace warm, like next to the oven for 20-24 hours. If it’s winter, it’ll take longer to thicken. When it’s hot out, it’s ready a lot faster. Then, store it in the fridge and voila! La creme! You made creme fraiche. The amount of thickness is up to you. You can determine the thickness by how long you let it sit out. If you like it somewhat runny, keep it out for about 20 hours. If you like sour cream consistency, keep it out the full 24 (or less if you’re experiencing a sizzling summer in the valley).
Creamy and delicious, this yogurt is full of live enzymes and probiotics…and especially nourishing when made with 100% grassfed milk!
Gently heat milk to 110 degrees.
While the rest is warming, dissolve gelatin in about 1/2 c. of the milk, then heat in a little saucepan until dissolved.
Let cool, then add to the rest of the milk.
After bringing to 110, mix a little bit with the yogurt until dissolved, then add the rest.
Pour into a perfectly clean half-gallon jar, and replace the lid loosely.
Dehydrate at 108 for 8 hours, then let cool before transferring to the refrigerator.
Yogurt should set up a bit more as it chills. Enjoy!
Raw milk yogurt is very easy to make at home-even without a yogurt maker! This recipe uses the cooler method to keep the yogurt warm enough to culture properly.
In a stockpot, place up to four 32-oz (1-quart) mason jars inside. Fill the jars with raw milk.
Fill the pot with warm water (about halfway up the mason jars) and gently begin heating at a low to medium temperature. Keep a close watch on the pot. Use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature of the milk. The ideal temperature for growing yogurt is somewhere between 98-110 degrees, which should feel comfortably warm to the touch.
When the milk is warm enough, place 1-2 tablespoons of a good quality, no-additive, whole fat plain yogurt into each quart of milk, and stir well to mix the cultures.
Place the mason jars of milk into a cooler filled with very warm water. Close the cooler tightly and cover with blankets or towels for insulation.
Leave the milk to culture for 6-24 hours. If culturing for more than 6 hours, you may have to add more hot water to the cooler to maintain the proper temperature.
When your yogurt is done, store in the refrigerator. Keep back a portion of the fresh yogurt to culture the next batch.
One of the things I hope to accomplish with this blog is to make it easy and common place to have cultured foods as part of your everyday life. Let’s face if it is to hard or complicated most people are not going to do it. So If I can teach you a few things to make life easier, hopefully you will start making and enjoying these life giving foods. Making kefir whey and and cheese is something I do many times a week. It doesn’t take long and will cultured a multitude of foods. Kefir has so many probiotics, at least 30, and that does not even account for the good yeast that you get too. So grab your kefir, a bowl and a coffee filter and we are ready to begin. Easy, I promise.
Place a basket style coffee filter in a strainer and place the strainer in a bowl.
Pour prepared kefir into the coffee strainer. The bowl will catch the whey which is the liquid that will drop through the filter.
Cover and place in the fridge overnight. I normally get about 1 cup of whey and 1 cup of kefir cheese out of 2 cups of kefir.
The next day you have a beautiful lump of kefir cheese in the filter.
Remove the cheese from the strainer and save the whey that has dripped into the bowl for making fermented drinks or cultured vegetables by placing the whey in a glass jar in the fridge.
You can use the cheese immediately or place it in a airtight container in the fridge.