Post by wyomama on Sept 18, 2004 14:12:17 GMT -5
I make my clabber much the same as Sally and Vanessa. I have a five gallon plastic bucket. I keep it clean so that if I wish to use the clabber for people food it will be a good product. If you stand the bucket in a place that is 60 to 70F in a couple of days it will set to a solid curd. It captures wild bacteria. Keep it covered with a tea towel affixed with clothespins. Never cover it tightly or the milk will sour with a poor flavor. The first time you do this takes longer. I save out about a pint of the clabber when I empty it, wash the bucket, put the saved clabber back, and add more skim. Stir well.
Chickens will eat a lot of clabber.
Fot cottage cheese, gently stir the clabber to break it up, or cut neatly as Sally describes, and heat it to 110F for soft curd cottage cheese or 120F for firm curd. Drain the heated curd in butter muslin (tight weave cheese cloth) for an hour or more. You can also drain it in a colander. This loses some curds through the holes, but who cares. Save all whey. It can be used for ricotta if you make it within 45 minutes. I usually just pour it on my most deserving plants such as rosebushes. It is outstanding fertilizer.
For the cheese called qvark, heat the curd just to 90F and drain it through linen. It will need to hang longer, even overnight. Qvark can be used like cream cheese.
If you want an instant cheese product, heat the skim to 180F, then add 1/2 cup vinegar per one gallon skim and stir with a wooden spoon. It may take a tad more vinegar. Strain off the whey. This cheese is called queso blanco. It immediately forms a firm mat. It can be cubed or shredded and used in many ways. Try marinating it and adding to salads or pasta. Better queso blanco is made with whole milk, but it is worth making with skim when you have an over supply.
Paneer (East Indian) is made like queso blanco but you use lemon juice instead of vinegar. Paneer is not as firm as queso blanco.
You cannot tastte the vinegar or lemon juice in these cheeses.
Joann
Chickens will eat a lot of clabber.
Fot cottage cheese, gently stir the clabber to break it up, or cut neatly as Sally describes, and heat it to 110F for soft curd cottage cheese or 120F for firm curd. Drain the heated curd in butter muslin (tight weave cheese cloth) for an hour or more. You can also drain it in a colander. This loses some curds through the holes, but who cares. Save all whey. It can be used for ricotta if you make it within 45 minutes. I usually just pour it on my most deserving plants such as rosebushes. It is outstanding fertilizer.
For the cheese called qvark, heat the curd just to 90F and drain it through linen. It will need to hang longer, even overnight. Qvark can be used like cream cheese.
If you want an instant cheese product, heat the skim to 180F, then add 1/2 cup vinegar per one gallon skim and stir with a wooden spoon. It may take a tad more vinegar. Strain off the whey. This cheese is called queso blanco. It immediately forms a firm mat. It can be cubed or shredded and used in many ways. Try marinating it and adding to salads or pasta. Better queso blanco is made with whole milk, but it is worth making with skim when you have an over supply.
Paneer (East Indian) is made like queso blanco but you use lemon juice instead of vinegar. Paneer is not as firm as queso blanco.
You cannot tastte the vinegar or lemon juice in these cheeses.
Joann
