Cow's Milk & Basil Farmer's Cheese

Welcome back for Eat Local 2012!!  I hope you can enjoy my recipes from last year, and I'll add new ones as I try them.

 

I went by the local market at Zeitgeist yesterday to buy some more groceries, and ended up staying for the cheese making demonstration.  Aviva Rabins did a great job of demonstrating cheese-making as fun and easy.  I really liked what she had to say about "regular people teaching each other how to make things".  I fall into the trap sometimes of thinking that you need extensive education or expertise to do new things.  This was much easier than I thought.  

 

I gave it a try myself last night, with good results.  I consulted a couple books, but basically went with Aviva's methods.  If you didn't attend the demonstration, you can check out cheese recipes in the following as well - 

 

Wild Fermentation  by S. Katz

 

One Food and Cooking by H. McGee

 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by B. Kingsolver

 

My method was very similar to Wild Fermentation. It's the most simple.  You'll need the following:

 

A gallon of whole milk (Smith Creamery)

1/2 cup vinegar (Steen's for local)

1 tbls salt

strainer, bowl, & cheese cloth

herbs (optional)

 

 

 

Looking forward to pizza tonight!