There are nearly endless kinds of cheeses. Among the variables that result in so much diversity are the mammal that the milk is from (most commonly cattle, sheep, goats, reindeer, yaks, and water buffaloes), what these animals were eating at the time they were milked, and how the milk is processed. Some people swear by raw milk rather than pasteurized, but raw milk may contain harmful organisms, and organisms that might adversely affect the cheese-making process. On the other hand, raw milk has a slightly different battery of enzymes that can affect the final cheese. Ultra-pasteurized milk, while shelf-stable, does not work for cheese making.
The first time I made cheese, I was craving Indian food. I wanted saag paneer (spiced greens with cheese cubes), but I didn’t have any of the required cheese. Paneer is quick and easy to make and takes no special equipment or ingredients, so I figured I’d give it a try. The version I made used two cups of milk and two teaspoons of lemon juice. I was impatient and didn’t bother to press it into solid cubes, but it tasted great and satisfied my cravings.
For me, cheese is an essential right behind chocolate and in front of popcorn, so being without it is not an option for my comfort and joy. In situations where fresh milk is not available, I wondered, would skim and whole powdered milks and powdered buttermilk work for making cheese. I decided to experiment with “worst case scenarios”, to make cheese at home.
Paneer, Queso Blanco, and Ricotta are all made with some form of milk and an acid, usually lemon or lime juice or vinegar, that curdles the milk and causes the curds and whey to separate. Unlike so many other kinds of cheese, especially the hard cheeses, no cultures of microorganisms and no rennet (the enzyme from the stomach of young mammals that allows their mother’s milk to be digested) are required to make soft cheeses. Nowadays, people often use citric acid instead of vinegar or juice because it is handy, shelf stable, and imparts no taste that needs to be washed away, although I like the tang lemon or lime juice give to paneer.
Besides the milk source, temperature at which the milk is first heated affects the final product. For paneer, the milk is brought just to a boil or close, up to about 190 degrees F, with lots of gentle stirring, then the acid is added, traditionally, lime juice. Milk for queso blanco is brought only to 185 degrees before adding vinegar, and milk for ricotta is heated to 200 degrees before lemon juice is added. Ricotta is often made from whey rather than from whole milk, so the byproduct of making other cheeses can be used to yield even more cheese.
The materials I used for these experiments were:
1. A heavy, stainless-steel cooking pot
2. A candy thermometer
3. A wooden spoon
4. Measuring cups and spoons
5. Quart canning jars with lids
6. Butter muslin (a finely woven cheesecloth), although a clean, white cotton T-shirt or a finely woven dish towel can work. The loosely woven cheesecloth often sold with canning supplies requires multiple layers to keep the curds from falling through, and while it can be used, I liked the butter muslin better.
7. A sieve (for holding the cheesecloth) that fits over a bowl for draining the cheese
8. A stove or other heat source to bring the milk to temperature
9. For the yogurt making, a water bath using a crock pot that can be set to hold a constant low temperature. In lieu of the water bath, the culture can be held in a straw box or a cooler with thick insulation of towels or other means to hold the temperature. These will lose heat over time, but adding to the incubation time will make up for the lower temperature
10. A container for the finished cheese
Paneer with Non-fat, Dried Milk
My first experiment was with powdered, nonfat dried milk, a product so shelf stable that it’s nearly indestructible, but, depending on the brand, is kind of awful for regular drinking as milk or for making overnight oats (I was camping without a stove or cooler, and it seemed like a good idea at the time).
Making paneer starts with gently heating the milk to around 185 or even up to just below 200 F. Heating conditions the proteins in the milk to help form firm curds. I held the milk at this temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. I allowed the milk to cool to 170 degrees and added the acid (I keep 2 tablespoon lemon-juice cubes in my freezer, but I prefer lime juice when I can get it), 2 tablespoons per quart of milk, at about the same temperature. I left this for about 30 minutes so the curds could form.
Ideally, the whey should be yellowish and clear, not cloudy. If it’s cloudy, more acid should be added and another 10 minutes or so allowed for the curds and whey to separate. I then strained the curdled milk through thick cheesecloth. Traditionally, after the paneer is allowed to drain and as much of the whey as possible is squeezed out, a heavy weight in put on the cheese for up to an hour to press out more whey and to make the paneer fairly solid. It can then be cut into cubes and fried or added to various dishes rather like meat cubes. I was never able to get it really solid with the powdered non-fat milk, probably because there was no fat in my starting material. When I used 1% fat milk (about to expire and on clearance for $0.25 for a half gallon), the paneer was more solid after pressing overnight, and I was able to cut it into cubes to fry.
The water buffalo milk traditionally used to make paneer is 6% fat compare to cow’s whole milk which is 4%. I have not yet experimented with adding either frozen or canned cream to the reconstituted powdered skim milk, but this is said to give both a higher yield and a more solid cheese. Still, the crumbly non-fat cheese tastes great, and even a little fat improves the solidity.
Labneh—Yogurt Cheese—From Non-Fat Dried Milk
Another kind of soft, acid-curdled cheese can be made from cultured milk products. One of these is labneh, made from yogurt.
I started with ½ cup of nonfat dried milk and 2 cups of water. Over low heat with stirring, I brought the milk to 180 degrees F, then took it off the heat until it was 100 degrees. While it was cooling, I took the last tablespoon or so of grocery store yogurt (plain, non-fat Greek yogurt), and brought it to room temperature, then stirred it into the milk. This can be held at 100 degrees for 6 to 22 hours, depending on how strong the culture is and what consistency the final product should be. I use a slow cooker with a dial that was set to just below the “warm” setting to maintain a water bath to hold the quart jar of yogurt. The result was fabulous, with a nice layer of whey on the top that I stirred back in, and a flavor that was excellent—far superior to trying to use the powdered milk as milk. I froze some of the yogurt in about two-tablespoon units in an ice tray to keep for future starters. This has worked very well for me. There is the danger that over too many passages, the organisms that make the yogurt (Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) will mutate, become less viable, or one of them will die out. To avoid this, some people dehydrate their yogurt for starter, but I have not tried that yet. Freeze-dried starter is also commercially available.
Now that I had yogurt, I was ready to try labneh. For this experiment, I used 3 cups of the non-fat dried milk yogurt and added about 1 teaspoon of salt. I strained it through a thick cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, I made cheese balls, about a tablespoon each, and let those drain for another 12 hours, then chilled them on a tray until they were firm and a little dried out. Finally, I put them in a sterile jar and covered them with olive oil. I’m told that they can be stored at room temperature for several months that way, but we eat them faster than that.
Ricotta From Whey Of Non-Fat Dried Milk Cheeses
Now that I had whey from both the paneer and the labneh, I decided to try making ricotta. I heated one quart of whey to about 195 degrees with gentle stirring. I removed the whey from the heat and stirred in 1 tablespoon of vinegar, then let that stand for 10 to 15 minutes. After the curds formed, I strained them through cheese cloth for about 6 hours so the the cheese would be somewhat firm. I added a little un-iodized salt to the cheese to give it a bit more flavor. I was really pleased with this cheese and used it in a ricotta frittata.
Other uses for whey are to boost protein in anything it’s added to (the main ingredient in protein powders is often nothing but dried whey), or to feed chickens, or to add calcium to garden soil to prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes, although I’d rather use spoiled milk for this purpose. Another use for whey is to make a wonderful creation called brunost (also called mysost). Brunost is whey, often with added milk or cream to make it sweeter, that has been cooked down for 5 to 15 hours until the milk sugars are caramelized and the liquid is reduced by 75%. It tastes amazing, but keeping a heat source going for that long takes a commitment.
Cheese From Powdered Cultured Buttermilk
For baking, I keep powdered cultured buttermilk in my refrigerator. Unopened, I have kept it on a shelf for a couple of years. I have found various recipes for making cheese from buttermilk, some using the oven and some for the stove top. I tried using my powdered buttermilk, reconstituted to 1 quart, and heated it to 180 F until it curdled, then let it stand off the heat for about 5 minutes. Scooping out the curds was harder than I was led to believe, so I dumped it into a cloth-lined sieve to drain for about 7 hours. I added salt to the final product. I didn’t much care for this cheese. I found it sour, but there are some who might like this.
Another method using buttermilk for making cheese is to add 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk to a quart of sweet milk, heating that to 180 F for about 8 minutes and then proceeding as above. I haven’t tried this as I wasn’t a fan of the previous experiment and didn’t want to waste my milk.
Other Cheeses from Pantry Staples
Cheese substitutes that vegans use often call for nutritional yeast because of its “cheesy” flavor. I have made a Parmesan substitute that was very nice, but the others were more disappointing.
For the vegan “Parmesan”, about of cup of raw nuts, usually cashews, are pulsed in a blender with 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, ¾ teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder, and a teaspoon of fine sea salt. The recipe said I could add pepper, but I preferred not to. It kept well in the refrigerator and was every bit as good or better than the cheap powdered stuff that is sold in grocery stores for sprinkling on pizza and pastas.
Raw cashews and nutritional yeast can be stored on the shelf (1-2 months and 1-2 years respectively), but last longer in the freezer (1-2 years and several years, respectively). Additionally, anyone living on beans and rice with little or no access to animal products can avoid the risk of B12 deficiency by adding nutritional yeast to their diet (as well as eating fortified breakfast cereals, which also contain B12).
Other Cheese Thoughts
I have used powdered whole milk to make both yogurt and paneer, and have found it to behave more like fresh milk than the non-fat dried milk. My objection is that powdered whole milk is not as shelf stable as the non-fat milk because of the fat in it. Its shelf life can be extended by storage in the refrigerator or the freezer.
Powdered cheese is available for sale and if stored in a cool dry place can last for years, but, being a powder, has its limitations. Canned Cheddar is available from Washington State University and lasts for well over a year in the refrigerator. It has a good flavor and is good for both snacking and cooking.
My next round of experiments will branch out into using “table cream”, the canned cream that can be combined with the powdered whole milk for making cream cheese (usually clabbered with vinegar) and some other cheeses. After that, I’ll be moving on to rennet cheeses. Sticking to my desire to explore shelf stable possibilities, I’ll be testing rennet tablets, both animal and vegetable-sourced, that are fairly stable for a year at room temperature, but can last five years or so in the freezer. Also, a plant-based rennet can be extracted from nettles, wild thistles, artichokes, and other plants. I’ll be giving that a try as well.
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