i was just on amazon shopping for citric acid for making laundry soap, and in related products i found liquid vegetable rennet. the reviews made cheese making sound super easy.

has anyone made their own cheeses?
what was it like? 

I have made my own mozzarella, ricotta, and tomorrow I'm actually making a cilantro lime queso fresco! Cheese making is easy peasy and tastes so much better then store bought. 

I've heard that! How do you make it? 

THIScheese is my favorite tutorial. But you can search it on Youtube and dozens of them come up.

Ricotta is way easier. No Rennet necessary. Just bring a whole gallon of milk, salt, and vinegar or lemon juice almost to a boil, strain through cheese cloth and boom. You can add basil, oregano, lemon zest, etc. to it too. So yummy! Queso Fresco goes the same way, kinda. You need either a candy thermometer or some other kind of thermometer you can clip onto the side of your pot. The temperature is important. Just Google...there's tons of info out there! 

what kind of milk do you use?
i've made ricotta, but i didn't like the taste.... i used lactaid though haa

i've conditioned my bread dough overnight in the whey, and i liked that aspect of cheese making very much.

where do you find raw milk around here? 

I just use regular whole milk from the grocery store. I have heard from some people that they had problems getting the ultra pasteurized kind to separate into curds. But I just buy regular pasteurized and I've never had an issue. It's really so easy for a while there I was making cheese like once a week lol! 

i've conditioned my bread dough overnight in the whey, and i liked that aspect of cheese making very much.

Hmmm never thought about that! I use the whey in the garden for the plants. But I might have to try this.

where do you find raw milk around here? Don't know 'cause raw milk scares me. I know someone who almost died from drinking it because the person they were getting it from didn't care about sanitation. But I found farm fresh eggs on Craigslist when we lived there...I bet if you look someone might have raw milk. 

ive gotten food poisoning before-from grocery store cooked food-so i understand the importance of knowing your source.

its a touchy subject, but for the record i don't drink raw milk and i only would if i met the cows and had a personal recommendation, and my views of raw milk are to proceed carefully. i want to make cheese with raw milk since that is about to be banned in the US.

soft cheese
:(


omgomg guess what i found!:) 

ps. that blog you posted is so great! thank you 

You're welcome! I love George Pellegrini. :-) 

Oh! BTW, if you want to try a really fun homemade staple (at least, it's a staple in our house anyway) try this one from her blog...Homemade Bacon 

I am salivating.