How to make Cottage Cheese
You can count on homemade cottage cheese! It's a tasty, nutritious, easily digested, and surprisingly low-caloried food. Eat it plain. Add a little salt and popper or a dash of some other seasoning. Combine it with fruits or vegetables in a refreshing salad that's a main dish or a dessert. Keep a supply in your refrigerator for a snack. This page will show you how to make homemade cottage cheese and how to make cottage cheese taste good.
Cottage cheese is a soft, unripened cheese and can easily lie made at home from skim milk or reconstituted instant nonfat dry milk. The freshly made curd has a mild acid flavorand a smooth texture. Cottage cheese has many of the same nutrients found in fresh milk. Most homemakers who make their own cottage cheese like having a steady supply of cheese with home-made flavor. Families that have large quantities of surplus skimmilk for making into cheese may save money. too.
The two major types of cottage cheese are small-curd, high-acid cheese made without rennet, and popular large-curd, low-acid cheese made with rennet. Rennet is a substance that speeds curdling and keeps the curd that forms from breaking up easily. Adding rennet shortens the cheese-acid and larger-curd cheese, and re-duces the amount of curd poured off with leftover liquid.
Cottage cheese made either withor without rennet can be creamed. Adding cream to cheese increases its smoothness and improves its flavorand texture. Creaming cottage cheese also adds calories and slightly lowers protein content. Fruits, vegetables, or other flavor-cheese, to make a variety of sidedishes and salads.
INGREDIENTS
*
Milk - Use pasteurized skim milk or reconstituted nonfat dry milk. One gallon of milk (8.25 pounds) will yield about one pound of cottage cheese. The equipment specified on this website will handle about 1 and a half gallons of milk. The milk should be fresh, because you cannot make high-quality cheese from poor-quality milk. Even if milk is stored for only a few days undesirable bacteria can develop and cause off-flavors or odors in cheese made from the milk. You can make cottage cheese from unhomogenized whole milk if you first let it stand a few hours, and then skim off the cream that rises to the surface. You cannot skim cream from whole milk that has been homogenized. You can make satisfactory cottage cheese from reconstituted instant skim milk. The noninstant commercial bakers will not make good cottage cheese.
*
Starter - You must use a starter to get the cheese-forming process underway.The starter may be either a commercially produced lactic culture (apartial list of sources appears below) or fresh cultured buttermilk.
*
Rennet - Use rennet if you plan to make a large-curd cheese. Rennet is available either in tablet form (junket tablets), or as an extract. You can sometimes buy tablets in drug or grocery stores; the extract is available only from rennet companies.
*
Salt - Salt improves the flavor and keeping quality of cottage cheese.
*
Cream - Adding cream to cottage cheese makes a smoother and more flavorful product.
EQUIPMENT
You probably already have most of the necessary equipment for making cottage cheese. You'll need an 8-quart container for the milk. One made of stainless steel is best, but you can use any acid-tinned container. A milk pail or water-bath canner would be satisfactory. But do not use any kind of galvanized metal or aluminum container. A large galvanized pail, tinlard can, or dishpan will do.
A thermometer that measures temperatures between 75 degrees and 175 degrees F. The floating, dairy type is best, though a candy or jelly thermometer is acceptable. A long-handled spoon or stirrer that reaches to the bottom of the 8-quart container.
Measuring spoons.
A knife with a blade long enough to reach to the bottom of the 8-quart container. A piece of cheesecloth, 18 inches square. A colander, and a pan big enough to hold the colander. A mixing bowl made of anything but aluminum or galvanized metal. A covered container for storing cheese in refrigerator.