Modern Bushman

Do It Yourself Cheese: Homemade Fromage Blanc For Dummies

I was recently talking to a friend about Modern Bushman and telling her what it was all about. She was very interested and had a few suggestions for articles that might fit into the self reliance, preparedness genre. She asked me if I had ever tried to make cheese or butter from scratch. Now to be honest, I had not even once thought about making cheese or butter and told her as much. She went on to tell me how easy it was and how few ingredients it actually took. After speaking to her I decided to give homemade cheese a try. Here is how it turned out.

First I needed the ingredients.  Here is a list of ingredients need to make cheese:

• 4 cubs of whole milk
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1.5 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of salt
  

  Homemade cheese ingredients

That’s it. I didn’t need any special kitchen tool either. All I needed was a pot, a colander, cheese cloth, a thermometer and that’s it. Nothing special. Here’s how it went down and I’ll give it to you in steps.

Steps for Making Homemade Cheese:

Bring the 4 cups of whole milk to 170 degrees. That is what the thermometer is for. Do not let the milk boil and stir it constantly. This keeps the milk from burning the bottom of the pot. Once the milk reaches 170 add the butter milk and lemon juice.

Turn off the stove and stir the mix for a minute. Let the mix stand for 10 minutes. You will see the curds and whey start to separate. That is what the lemon juice does. It is a separating agent.

After letting it sit, ladle the curds and whey into a colander lined with the cheese cloth. Let the whey drain for 5 minutes. After it drains, gather up the cheese cloth into a bundle, tie it off with a string and let it hang for half an hour.

This lets the remaining whey drain out slowly. After you drain it, it’s ready to eat. You have the freshest fromage blanc you could ask for. If you want the cheese to develop a little bit, leave it in the fridge overnight. Just keep it in an airtight container.

I served it with some olive oil, chive from the garden and some ground pepper on toast. It was great. I shared some with my neighbors and they loved it.

There is a ton of recipes online that can punch up fromage blanc but this is the base formula. You can add all kinds of stuff to the brew to make the custom cheese of your choice. Even the basic cheese is a flavorful addition to appetizers and complements a ton of different meals. If anything, it gives you something to do with the unused milk that is about to expire in your fridge. Please feel free to share your experiences with homemade cheese in the comments section below. We would really like to hear about and learn from all of our readers.

 

Stay hungry my friends.

~ Adam, Modern Bushman