Posted in Home Dairy

O.k. So the Home Dairy category is not on the weekly schedule here these days. But it happens to be one of my favorite subjects! I've been reading and dreaming about making butter, cheese, yogurt for years. My grandmother grew up on a dairy & creamery in upstate New York nearly 100 years ago and my mother had LaMancha dairy goats when I was a kid. So I think dairy is in my blood.

A lot of you have dairy animals and know how to do this already. For those unfamiliar with the process or those with experience looking to compare notes, I've put together a tutorial for making butter using a food processor. You can find the article on my blog here.

The basic steps for making butter are:

1. Skim the cream.
2. Ripen the cream (this is optional but makes for a more nutritious and flavorful butter).
3. Churn the cream.
4. Strain the buttermilk out.
5. Wash the butter.
6. Work the water out of the butter.
7. Eat the butter!! Or store it if there's any left.

I find many people worry about step 3: Churning. With all our modern conveniences, this part is easy these days! The work is in the washing and the working! But it will keep your upper arms from getting flabby.

If you have other tools or procedures, I would love to hear about them. I'm always looking for ways to improve my procedures!

Happy butter eating, er uh, making!

Kristin Hoffman homesteads with her family in the hills of East Tennessee and blogs about alternative energy, family farming, and home schooling with her husband at www.solarfamilyfarm.com. She can also be found most Saturdays in the kitchen making the week's butter.

Posted in Home Dairy

This is a recipe that was given to me by a friend (thank you Cheryl!). It looked so easy to make that I thought it was to much to believe. So of course I had to make it!

It turned out great!! I took pictures of the process so that if it did turn out I could show you just how easy cheese making can be!!  I buy my cheese cultures and my cheese salt from Leeners http://leeners.com/  This is a great company to do business with. 

Here is the recipe:

Super Easy Feta Cheese

1 gallon goats milk (any milk would work, I used raw goats milk)
¼ c cultured buttermilk- this must be real cultured buttermilk or 1/8 t. Mesophilic A culture (I use direct set cultures that I buy from Leeners and that is what the pictures show)
¼ c water
20 drops vegetable rennet

Also:
Salt (cheese salt works best)
herbs, dried or fresh, your choice (dill, basil, oregano, chives, thyme)
Olive oil


Start with 1 gallon of milk

Heat the milk to 70 degrees (about room temp. I am not sure you have to do that, but felt room temp would be better than cold milk).

Add the buttermilk or Mesophilic A culture and stir.

Into the ¼ cup of water add 20 drops of vegetable rennet and stir. Add this to the milk and stir.

Let this sit for 2 hours. After 2 hours, stir slowly and carefully to break up the curds.

Drain this for 8 to 10 hours (overnight is handy). Below you will see pics of how I do this.  I use an old pillow case (works better than cheesecloth) that I have washed and bleached and shoestrings that have been washed and bleached to hang my cheese.

Here it is after 8 hours. You can see the bag of cheese is much smaller and there is much more whey in the bowl

Here is what was in the bag:

cut the cheese into chunks.

Layer pieces of cheese, salt and herbs in a quart jar.

View from the top:

Cover with olive oil making sure no cheese is above the level of the oil.

Turn jar several times a day. This is ready to eat in 3 days.

Crystal Miller

 

Crystal and her husband Tobin, along with 6 of their 8 homeschooled children make their home on 18 acres in SW Washington State.   Crystal enjoys caring for her home and family and her farm.  You can visit Crystal’s website: The Family Homestead  or Crystal’s Country Store where she sells her own goat milk soap, ebooks and more! 

Posted in Home Dairy

Cream cheese is an excellent first cheese to make.  This is my second year of cream cheese making and my results seem to be getting better and better all the time.  Any cheese product, including yogurt, is a cultured milk product.  You will need to purchase a culture to make this recipe. 

 

There are two different ways to obtain the culture.  The first is to use cultured buttermilk.  This is how I first started doing it.  I would buy the buttermilk culture and make buttermilk, also an easy process.  But it does take time so you need allow a day or so to make this. 

 

The other option and what I do now and what I personally recommend is to buy culture that you add directly to your milk. These are called, “Direct Set Cultures”.  I like this because I can decide to make cream cheese and not have to wait for my buttermilk to culture. 

 

I buy these cultures from Leeners  http://leeners.com/ . They have good prices and are super to do business with.  The type of culture needed for this cheese is called, Mesophilic-M. You can find this culture on this page: http://leeners.com/cheesesupply.html#mesophilic  .  You don’t need a lot: ¼ of a teaspoon will culture 1 gallon of milk.  You will also need to purchase liquid rennet for my recipe.  Rennet is used to set the cultured milk.  You can find the rennet here: http://leeners.com/cheesesupply.html#Rennet

 

There are a few other miscellaneous, but important items you will need.  One is a thermometer that is easy to read.  You can purchase these at the grocery store in the cooking aisle or at a store such as Wal-Mart. 

 

The other item you need is cheesecloth.  When I first started I searched high and low for cheese cloth.  I paid quite a bit for it at the fabric store when I found it.  Later I learned that I don’t actually need cheesecloth and that it is not really even the best material for the job. The very best material to use to drain your cream cheese is simply an old pillow case.  You can call this stuff “case cloth”!  I took an old pillow case and opened it up.  I washed it with hot, soapy, bleach water to clean and disinfect it.  This works great and will last you a long time. 

 

You will also need a strong string to hang the cheese.  Again I found through some trial and error that old shoestrings work the best.  I washed the shoestrings right along with the pillow case in the hot, soapy bleach water before I used them. 

 

 

Crystal’s Cream Cheese

Crystal Miller

 

1 gallon goat’s milk (store bought cows milk will work too!)

¼ t. direct set mesophilic-m culture

2 T diluted rennet (add 1 drop of rennet to 5 T cool water)

 

In a large pot (I use a 6qt) add goat’s milk.  Heat your milk to 80 degrees.  Remove from heat and add the mesophilic-m culture and stir will.  Add the rennet and stir.  Cover the pan and let sit undisturbed at room temp for 12 to 18 hours. 

 

After your time is up what you have in the pot should look like very thick yogurt.  Now you will drain and drip your cheese. 

 

Line a colander with your clean pillow case.  I set this colander in a large bowl to catch the whey.  Now drain your thick yogurt looking cheese into this cloth.  Gather up the cloth and tie it tightly.  Now you need to hang it somewhere.  I have handles on my kitchen cupboard that work perfect for this.  Whatever you hang it make sure it is up high enough to allow the whey to drip through the cloth into a bowl below.  Now let your cream cheese drain for about 6 to 8 hours.  You can speed this process along by stirring your cream cheese up about halfway through the time and you can do it again if you need to. 

 

When it is completed what you have left in the pillow case is your cream cheese!  You can salt it a bit or not, that is up to you.  It is ready to be used right away over a homemade bagel or you can use it for cooking or even cheesecake! 

 

The whey can be used for cooking.  I use it as the liquid to make bread or in pancakes.  I also use the whey in making fermented vegetables (but that is a whole different article! ~smile~) 

 

Happy Cream Cheese Making!!

 

Crystal Miller

 

Crystal and her husband Tobin, along with 6 of their 8 homeschooled children make their home on 18 acres in SW Washington State.   Crystal enjoys caring for her home and family and her farm.  You can visit Crystal’s website: The Family Homestead  or Crystal’s Country Store where she sells her own goat milk soap, ebooks and more!   !