Here is how to make cheese at home with milk and vinegar

Cheese is one of the most common milk products that is used in the making of various food items. Since it is convenient to buy commercially made cheese from the grocery store, most people do not know how to make cheese. Commercial cheese, while available in a wide variety, also contains additives that could be a health hazard for some. For those interested in making cheese at home with ingredients present inside your house, below is a simple recipe.

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Ingredients for making cheese

One primarily needs two main ingredients to make cheese at home. The first obvious ingredient is milk. A majority of cheese is made from milk and the recipe given here also uses milk as the main ingredient. The other ingredient is vinegar, which is used to convert the milk to cheese. 

Steps to make cheese

Heat the milk

Any type of milk will work when it comes to making cheese. However, raw milk is the best as it provides the best flavour but it is sometimes unavailable in grocery stores. Even skimmed milk will work, though the cheese yielded would be less. Whatever type of cheese you select, start with boiling milk over medium flame and keep stirring so that it does not burn.

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Add vinegar

Once the milk starts boiling, it is time to start curdling it. To do that, you need to add some vinegar into the pot. If the milk does not start to curdle, then you need to add more vinegar. The milk will soon start to separate into curd within which will be a yellowish liquid called whey.

Drain and season

Once the curding is complete, it is time to separate the cheese from the whey. Pour the curdled milk into a sieve. That will let the whey through it while retaining the cheese. Then pour some clean water over the cheese to wash away the remnants of whey in the sieve. Season it with whatever you find appropriate. Black pepper, salt or oregano can be used as flavour-additives for the freshly made cheese.

Drying

The last important step for making cheese is to dry it. Wrap the chunks of cheese in a piece of cloth that will not ruin the cheese. Cotton cloth or muslin can work for this process. Then keep the tied up cheese outside and allow it to dry. Once it has dried, you can keep it in the fridge for preservation. You can identify dried cheese by the way it crumbles when you apply pressure on it. 

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