Day 17: Homemade Cheese

My yiayia is a talented woman when it comes to many things and making cheese is definitely one of her strengths. She puts it in her spanokopites, tiropites, sprinkles some on top of her food, eats it with watermelon, adds some in salads, sprinkles sugar on top and has some for dessert- I mean you literally can use her cheese in everything you eat. I love to just put some in a bowl with some salt and munch away.

It’s pretty simple to make too which is good for me because I can actually recreate this when I’m not with her. Feel free to play with flavors and add some of your favorite spices to the cheese, whether it be savory or sweet. If the cheese is not seasoned, it’s very mild, so play around with it!

Enjoy!

*Ingredients

1 gallon whole milk

1 cup white vinegar

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp sugar

Cheese cloth

*Directions

Take your gallon of milk out in the morning and pour it in a large pot. Let the milk come to room temperature, or at least let it warm up a little. Once the milk has warmed up some, heat the pot on low to ensure the pot is warmed through. Then raise the temperature to medium. You want to keep an eye on it because you don’t want your milk to boil over- it will cause a huge mess if it does.

While your milk is in medium, watch for the top of the pot to become frothy. That will be your first sign that your milk is about to boil. Ensure your cup of vinegar is next to you ready to go at this point. Once you see the first bubble come up, pour the vinegar into the pot of milk and take it off of the burner.

Your milk will now curdle and that’s exactly what we want! Give it a stir and then set it aside. Place a strainer in your sink and place your cheese cloth in your strainer. Let your pot of cheese curds cool slightly, then strain. You want to be able to wait to strain your cheese because you want to use the cheesecloth to squeeze all of the water out of your cheese.

Once your cheese is completely drained season with your salt and sugar. I know sugar sounds weird but it does balance the cheese out really nicely and with the small amount being added, it does not make the cheese sweet.

Hope you enjoy!