What Is Needed To Make Homemade Cheese?
Making homemade cheese is an easy feat if you have the ingredients, tools and the information. Thankfully, many of the ingredients that you can use to make your ultimate homemade cheese are readily available. Homemade cheese is even more delicious than store-bought cheese.
Here are the things that you need to make cheese at home:
You Need A Good Cheese Recipe
The recipe for making cheese that you will get will determine the ingredients that you will need. Thankfully, there are so many cheese recipes online. Thus, you can look at a few of them and see what works best for you. It is best to start with a simple recipe, one that has been tried by many people. Later on, you can move on to complex recipes for your homemade cheese.
The Right Pot
First, you need a large pot. You will find that many cheese recipes recommend that you use 7.5 liters of milk. That is a lot! You need a big pot because in addition to the milk, you will also require to add other ingredients, which will depend on the type of cheese that you are making. You also want to leave enough space for stirring your cheese. Making cheese requires a lot of stirring.
You also need to choose the right pot. Aluminum and copper pots react with your cheese making ingredients. Thus, you are advised to buy a pot that is made of stainless steel or enamel.
Measuring Items
These are a must-have in the process of making homemade cheese. But first, they should be made of stainless steel, wood, glass or other material that does not react. Cheese making can also be a greasy process so you need items that will be easy to clean. You may also use plastic or nylon items. They work just as well.
A Thermometer
This should be a food-grade thermometer. It must be a thermometer that is made for preparing foods and cheese. If you can get one that has a handle so that you can hang it on the side of the pot, buy it. The most important thing about this thermometer is accuracy. Whether you get a basic thermometer or a more advanced one that is waterproof, accuracy is paramount. A digital waterproof thermometer is more advanced, but it is also costlier.
Cheesecloth
Cheesecloth is used to drain your cheese. You will also find that you have to use it for different things in the cheese making process. However, before you buy one, do some research so that you can get one that is easy to clean and maintain. You also need to buy butter muslin, which is a tightly woven cloth for squeezing the softer cheeses. The cheesecloth on the other hand is woven loosely and is used for squeezing hard butters.
Large Bowl
You will need a large bowl for different things in the cheese making process. For example, you will also need it to drain the whey. In the home cheese making process, you will need to use this bowl on several occasions for different things. You will also use the bowl to indirectly heat the milk, when you do not want to heat it directly.
A Skimmer
You will need a spoon with a long handle or a skimmer for adding culture, to scoop the curd and to add rennet. You will also use the long-handled spoon for stirring your cheese ingredients.
Conclusion
You can find so many recipes to make cheese at home. Whatever kind of cheese such as dairy free cheese, blue cheese, hard cheese, you can use the above mentioned things. Find interesting recipes online and enjoy delicious food.