HOME MADE CHEESE-How to make cheese at home without preservatives?

I never thought I would attempt to do this though i always prefer 100% home-made foods. A facebook group baby food recipes has been my constant motivation to try this recipe. I was hunting for homemade cheese recipes and one of the members Esd Mahendra suggested me a recipe but it had soda kind of ingredients. Most recipes had some artificial ingredient.Hence I planned to skip those and give a try. It came out well. But it doesn’t taste like store bought one. You can crumble and use in cheese paratha or make a spread in your bread/sandwich/cakes. The search doesn’t end with this post. I am looking for better versions. This resembles making of paneer and also tastes similar to paneer(cottage cheese). But they are different recipes.Cottage cheese or paneer making is stopped with step 7 and pressed whereas in cheese we go even further. Ricotta cheese is made this way and few add vinegar and salt to this. I skipped salt since I didn’t store for a long time.  This is definitely safe for little ones and please have a word with your pediatrician on when can this be given.

Ingredients:

• Milk-1/2 litre
• Lemon Juice-1/2 tbsp
• Curd-1/2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Bring milk to boil and add lemon juice.

2.Mix the juice well and keep it in medium flame.

3.The milk will curdle and water separates from cheese.

4.Switch off now and keep it aside.

5.Now place a muslin/white cloth on a filter and pour this curdled milk.

6.All water would have got drained.

7.Take the cheese in the cloth and wash in water to remove the lemon flavour.

8.Tie the cloth and hang for 15 minutes.

9.Add that cheesy part and 1/2 tbsp of curd to a mixer and blend well.

10.It would become soft and mashed. Collect this in the cloth and hang for around 6 hours.

11.Place a bowl below the cloth hung to collect water dripping.

13.After 6 hours,you can open it and transfer to a bowl.

14.Refrigerate over night. You can use this up to one week.

15.Bring to room temperature and use it.

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P.S:

I used full fat cream milk.

Wash the cheesy part in flowing water or else the lemon tinge stays strong.

I was not able to roll it into slices and make it as cubes. Hence I just made a ball and stored it.

Kindly stick to the timings for hanging/refrigeration as it is essential for a soft texture.

Let not your curd be too sour.

Choose a ripe lemon to extract juice.

The colour and look depends on the quality of milk.

Since it doesn’t thicken like store bought ones i was only able to crumble it and not scrap or grate for use.

Please have a word with your pediatrician before introducing any new food to babies.

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