Make Your Own Cheese
 
Make your own cheese!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 2 gallons whole milk
  • ½ gallon half & half (2 quarts)
  • 1 quart buttermilk
  • ¾ to 1 cup white vinegar or lemon juice
  • Salt, to taste
  • Plus 1 gallon whole milk to make the mizithra cheese
Instructions
  1. Pour the water into a large pot.
  2. Add the milk and the half and half and heat on low/medium heat.
  3. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.
  4. Slowly bring up the heat until the milk first begins to bubble, at the boiling point. Add in buttermilk and stir vigorously.
  5. Quickly reduce the heat or remove from stove and slowly add vinegar or lemon juice to the pot.
  6. The milk will start forming lumps, these are the cheese curds and the liquid is the whey.*
  7. With a slotted spoon, spoon out the curds and place them in a colander lined with cheesecloth. It tastes great warm.
  8. Allow to drain until it forms the texture you like. The longer it strains, the more firm the cheese.
  9. Salt, or even add pepper, to taste or enjoy plain.
Notes
*Note: Don’t throw the whey away! Make mizithra. Strain the whey thoroughly, until not even little bits of curd remain. Next, again bring up the heat. As soon as the whey begins boiling, turn down the heat and add 1 gallon of whole milk. Curds will again form. Stir curds around for a 2-3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon and put these curds into a separate colander. This soft cheese can be eaten fresh just like the first batch of anthotyros.
Recipe by Eleni Saltas at https://elenisaltas.com/2016/12/14/chapter-twenty-three-make-your-own-cheese/