Home made farmer's cheese? - Page 2

[skreader]

Hi Ruth,

I buy cheese making supplies online from The New England Cheesemaking Co.  Since you mention you keep Kosher, you might be interested in the vegetarian rennet (tablets or liquid) http://www.cheesemaking.com/cheeserennets.html

In my cheese making, I have found the age of the milk, and whether it has been pasturized commercially at quite high temperatures has made a lot of difference. Since I live in Hong Kong, where it is hard to get milk that has not been pasturized at very high temperatures, I mostly make soft cheeses. I have only been successful w/ mozarella once or twice.

Good luck & have fun w/ your cheese making.

[Ruthla]

Fussing with rennet is too much like work and expense for me. I'm happy with the cheeses I can make with lemon juice and buttermilk.

Oh, and here's the paneer cheese recipe I used:

http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/02/quick-homemade-cheese.html

The rest of that blog is awesome as well.

[ollyoxenfree]

You might be interested in Smitten Kitchen, who just did a post about making ricotta (check out the comments for discussion about how it's not a true ricotta - which she admitted in her post, and also making mascarpone, quark cheese and mozzarella). 

[Ruthla]

It looks like the only difference between riccotta and paneer is that in riccotta, you add the salt when you heat it, and in the paneer, I didn't salt it until after straining.  I think I'll try this technique next time.

The thought of adding cream, and ending up with a spreadable cheese, is intriguing as well.

[Mairghread]

can you use lactose free milk in place of whole milk to make farmers cheese?

[Bantams]

You should be able to make an acid-coagulated cheese (using lemon juice or citric acid) such as paneer or ricotta.

But bacteria rely on the lactose to multiply (they convert the milk sugars to lactic acid, making it tangy), so if there isn't any lactose it might not work.  Might be worth a try though.