What if you found out that making cheese at home is easier than you thought? Wouldn't you want to make it yourself at home, in your kitchen? I would.
Cheese lovers: You'd be surprised by how easy it is to make your own at home
Anyone who loves cheese so much that they use it for preparing meals at home knows that it is not cheap at all. A kilo of good cheese averages at around Shs40,000 in the supermarket, meaning that one has to break the bank if they are to eat cheese as regularly as they would love to. And because only the big supermarkets stock it, one often has to drive past all the duukas and corner shops to buy cheese.
Cheese
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Well, here is how one can make their own cheese at home that can be consumed that same day.
Homemade cheese
Pulse
- Slowly heat fresh whole milk, full fat milk in a stainless-steel sauce pan on the stove until it simmer (right before boiling). You can also boil the milk slowly till it reaches 82 to 85 degrees Celcius (use a thermometer). Gentle bubbles should be forming and the surface will look foamy. Turn off the heat.
- Stir slowly to stop the milk from scotching.
- Use a wooden ladle and slowly stir lemon juice into the milk, or white vinegar, applying small amounts at a time.
- The milk will separate into curds and whey.
- Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.
- Line a colander (basket sieve) with two layers of damp cheesecloth (a cloth that looks like a very fine sieve). Gently pour the milk into the cheesecloth, then gather the cheesecloth up around the curds and squeeze out the whey.
- Gather the cheesecloth into a tight bundle and tie it with a rubber band.
- Hang the bundle over a bowl or jar so the whey can drip out.
- Let the cheese drain for at least 1 1/2 hours.
- The long you wait the harder the cheese becomes, depending on what texture you want.
- Untie the bundle and transfer the cheese to a chopping board and apply salt on the surface of the cheese.
- Use your hands to pat and shape the cheese into a small wheel or log.
- The flavor and texture of the cheese usually improve a little bit if you refrigerate it for a few hours before serving. But even without refrigeration, the cheese is ready to eat.
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P.S. Two litres of milk require about 6 table spoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to curdle.
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