I wish my kitchen were just a little larger. The kitchen counter that houses my “growing stuff” is the largest counter I have!

I have two methods of making cottage cheese. The first one is just setting a gallon of raw milk on the counter where it will stay warm for several days. I skim off the cream (but not fastidiously, just “good enough”) and refrigerate that, and let the rest of the milk separate into “curds and whey.” The whey I then separate out and refrigerate (or freeze in ice cube trays) for adding to cooking and lacto-fermented foods. The curds I pour into a slow cooker, set it on low for a couple hours, drain and salt. It’s tangy and delicious this way.

The second way I make cottage cheese is with a gallon of skimmed raw milk that I’ve home pasteurized to 145° for 30 minutes and let cool back down to 72°. To this I add a mesophilic starter and keep it at 72° for 24 hours or so. I warm the curds and whey to 100° for 10 minutes, then up the temp a little at a time so that after 15 minutes it’s about 112° where I keep it for a half hour or until the curds get firm. At that point I pour off the whey and pour the curds into a cheesecloth bag that I hang on a hook over my sink for a few minutes. I plunge the bag into ice water and let it drain for 5 minutes or so. Then, it’s into a bowl with salt, herbs or (ooooh, yum) a little of the cream I skimmed off.

The hardest part of cheesemaking for me is working with an electric stove where precise control of temperature is much more of a challenge than a gas stove. But, I’m learning!

Raw milk is wonderful! I did some experimenting before I was satisfied with my raw milk butter too. I think the food processor works best, but you do need patience. I know set mine and go in another room where I can still hear the machine but not so loudly. When I hear the sound of the machine change, I know the cream is turning to butter! Let it run a little longer, pour off the buttermilk to use for any kind of baking, and rinse the butter several times with clear water. (You want to get any remaining milk out of the butter, that way it lasts longer.) I have also found that you need to be careful when skimming the cream–the more milk gets into your cream, the longer it takes to become butter. Hope that helps!

Thanks for being part of the carnival! Lovely contribution.

I tried to make butter the other day and it took forever to go from milk to butter. Is that normal? With store bought cream I can make whipped cream in just a few minutes, not so with the raw cream.