Guest chef Abigail: Making easy hard cheese

Guest chef Abigail [0] lives on a family farm in Iowa, and having extra goat's milk prompted her to learn how to make some homemade cheese!

Abigail graciously agreed to share detailed instructions and photos with us! :)

To start, gather all your ingredients and supplies.

You will need:

1 gallon milk (we use fresh goats' milk; we've heard that cows' milk also works)
3 eggs, beaten
1 pint buttermilk (we've also used Fil milk)
2 teaspoons salt

A large stock pot
A plastic strainer
A clean linen dish towel
A cheese press (or make your own like Abigail did -- more details below)

Bring 1 gallon milk to a gentle boil. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring constantly.

Then add the buttermilk a cup at a time, stirring constantly.

Keep stirring gently as the milk seperates into whey and curds (usually within a couple minutes). Continue to stir until it looks kind of like cottage cheese with a clearish liquid.

Place a plastic strainer in the kitchen sink, lined with a clean linen dishtowel. Pour whey and curds into this and let the liquid drain away.

Gathering up the edges of the dishtowel, hold it above the sink and let more of the whey drain out for a few minutes.

Stir the salt into the semi-dry curds.

Wrap the curds back up into the dishtowel and press out the rest of the liquid. Since we don't have a "real" cheese press, we used a plastic strainer, some plates, and a couple bricks for weight (see photo). Just make do with whatever you have on hand...it's not too tricky. :-)

After a few hours, unwrap your cheese and try a slice! :-)

This makes about 1.5 pounds of cheese, depending on the percentage of milk fat in your milk. This kind of cheese doesn't melt, so it's not the best for casseroles or that type of thing. It's perfect for sandwiches, salads, crackers, and other such uses. Store cheese in the refrigerator, and freeze whatever you won't be using within a week or so.

Bio: Abigail Paul, 27, enjoys serving her Savior and praising Him for His blessings to her. She also likes graphic design, desktop publishing, editing, HTML, writing, music, reading, scrapbooking, tatting, history, photography, and  taveling. Since 1995, Abigail has published a magazine called Hidden Wisdom [1], which is full of encouragement to Christian families. She is also known as "Ed." (short for "editress") and is "Auntie Abby" to a number of little ones. :D