Sunnyside Farm Fun: Easy Farmhouse Cheese

Probably the easiest of all cheeses to make is the Farmhouse Cheese. Farmhouse cheese is the same as paneer cheese except it has vinegar in the place of lemon juice. Farmhouse cheese is mild, grates well & slices well when pressed sufficiently (otherwise it crumbles beautifully)! Because it is so easy to make, this is the cheese I make for our family each week. It replaces cheddar in most things, although it does not melt which is a little strange at first. I use a mix of this, cheddar & mozzarella on top of pizzas (although I still buy cheddar as I haven't found a good recipe that suits our palates ~sigh~). I thought I'd take some photos of the process & share them with you. Please note that the original recipe came from Abigail's Build-a-Belly blog. This is a gorgeous food blog and every recipe that I've tried from it have been delicious. Sadly her Dad is very unwell at the moment. Please could you all pray for him and their whole family through this tough time.
~Sadly her Dad passed away. Please keep them all in your prayers during this time ~

Farmhouse Cheese

Ingredients:

4L (approx. 1 gallon) milk ( in our case we use raw milk straight from our house cow); 1/2 cup white vinegar; 1 Tbs cheese/artisans salt;

Method:

1. Bring milk to the boil. Stirring constantly.

(Note: this is when I catch up on blog reading ~ which is why I rarely comment any more as my one hand is busy.) :)

2. Once the milk froths and begins to boil up the sides of the pan, add the vinegar. Continue stirring.

3. After a minute turn off the heat. Continue stirring until the milk has settled completely. The curds will have separated from the whey.

4. Pour through a cheesecloth lined sieve. Don't forget to collect the whey and use it or give it to the animals. Your chickens or pigs will love you!

5. Add the cheese or artisans salt to taste. We use 1 Tbs which works well for our family. I tried using normal table salt, but it wasn't strong enough for our tastes. Mix the salt through the curds.