Faye & Paulo's Fresh Cheese

2 litres milk
Juice of 1 lemon
 
Simply bring 2 Litres of fresh milk to a rolling boil in a large pan, over a low-medium heat, stirring often to avoid burning on the bottom of the pan
Remove from the heat and immediately pour in the juice of 1 lemon (approx 5 tbsp) whilst stirring the milk in one direction only
The curds and whey separate - leave to rest and cool for a couple of hours (30 mins will do if you don't have time to wait!)
Pour into a sterilised (boiled) muslin cloth/bag/old t-shirt lined colander, sitting on a large bowl to collect the whey and leave for at least 3 hours - if you have somewhere to hang it from, tie the ends and hang with a bowl underneath
Transfer the curds from the muslin to a sterilised glass jar and store in the fridge - made with raw milk this keeps fresh for at least a week
If you like you can stir in some sea salt before storing, or else simply add freshly milled salt and pepper as you serve - it's also delicious with honey though!
 
If you get a softer curd after separation, it can take an overnight hang and may need a helping hand with stirring and squeezing to get the whey drained - this tends to happen if the milk isn't heated well enough, so be patient and allow a rolling boil to be reached, without burning the bottom!
 
The whey can be kept, stored in the fridge for a week as well - it can be used for all kinds of things - soak oats overnight in it and add chopped dates and cinnamon for a delicious breakfast, or use it in smoothies, all kinds of baking (biscuits, cakes, pancakes, bread etc.) or just sweeten with vanilla sugar for a fortified drink!

Anna's Cottage Cheese

2 litres raw milk
150g plain yogurt
1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
 
Bring the milk to almost a boil in a heavy-based saucepan, you just start to see the bubbles and you need to turn the heat all the way down. Stir in all the yogurt and lemon juice and keep stirring until you see the curds separating from the yellowish whey. At this point turn the heat off.
 
Line a large sieve with muslin cloth and place over a large bowl or saucepan. Pour the cheese into the lined sieve, you might want to save the whey water for another receipt or just drink it. Pour some cold water through the cheese, wrap it in the muslin cloth and hang it from the tap over the sink to allow the excess water to drain for 10-15 minutes.
 
Then, keeping it tightly wrapped, place it on a plate with some kitchen cloth towels to catch the excess liquid with a heavy weight on top (I use my heavy cooking books on top of the small chopping board to prevent from getting wet, you can use the same bowl with whey). Leave it there under the press for around 30 min – 1 hour. When you unwrap the cheese you can put it into the container and pour some of the whey just to keep it moist, but that is not necessary and you can just keep it in a container alone.
 
This cheese comes out pretty cheesy and of rich creamy flavour. You can cut it up with some tomatoes and sweet peppers, drizzle with some olive oil, black pepper and salt and it is good to go with any meal. Or you can drizzle over some honey and you have a lovely desert. Feel free to experiment with the cheese however you like.
 

Kefir
A fermented probiotic milk drink
From Yvette in Hemel Hempstead

Thankyou, for the lovely milk, the children love it and had it before bedtime today. I am making Kefir with it. I wondered if it would be an excellent addition to the recipe page.
 
You can use plastic to sieve the mixture, but neither metal or plastic for storage or fermenting.
 
1 Obtain Kefir grains not a Kefir manufactured starter off the internet or a friend.
2 Add raw milk in a 1:20 ratio of milk to kefir grain to take up no more than 2/3 volume in a glass jar. Lid on for an effervescent  fizz or cover with an elastic band and muslin.
3 Leave at room temperature out of direct sunlight.
4 Wait around 24 hours until the grains have risen from the bottom of the jar to the top. You can stir it occasionally if you want. Experiment with longer and shorter times and find out how you best like the taste and texture.
5 Strain and drink straight away or chill in the fridge to drink later - again the live bacteria are still changing the Kefir - so experiment with how long you chill or leave for to get tastes and textures you like.
 6. Put the strained kefir grains back in the jar an add milk again and off you go already making you next lovely Kefir drink.

Add fruits, coconut, honey etc if you feel like it. - be creative  - have it on your breakfast -  it is a healthy pro biotic drink packed with many more strains of helpful bacteria than shop bought yoghurt adding even more pros to your raw milk and many reported  health benefits.
 
Kefir grains will grow all the time you feed them raw milk so you only have to buy them once. As it is a fermented drink it has alcohol levels varying on fermentation around 0.08% for a 24 ferment to up to 3% on a 48 hour or longer ferment. 

More info on Kefir can be found here Kefir

Andy's Camembert
Ingredients:
18 pints (~10 litres) raw Friesian Holstein milk
1ml vegetarian rennet

I ordered 2 x 10 pint boxes of raw milk on Monday morning, and come Wednesday I had a package marked “Do not crush – milk!” sitting on my desk!
It sat in the fridge till the weekend, when I was able to start work – this time, some Camembert.


20 pints raw milk


Decanted out
Unfortunately the stock pot would only hold 18 pints, so the rest of the milk was happily consumed by the cats.


Heating to around 30C
I recently bought a new analogue dairy thermometer with clip to make it easier to monitor temperatures – seems quite accurate when compared with old digital one which is handy!
After heating to 30C, an extremely small amount of DVI starter was added, as well as a tiny pinch of rehydrated Penicillium Candidum.


Measuring out rennet
After 30 minutes, when the pH had dropped from 6.7 to 6.5, added diluted rennet and stirred gently for a couple of minutes, then left to set while maintaining a temperature of 30C.


Checking for a clean break
Clean break was achieved after around 6 hours, when the pH had dropped from 6.5 to 5.4.


Skimming off the cream
The milk was exceptionally creamy, much more so than the Jersey milk i’ve used in the past, so had to skim off the milk to get the curd.


Ladelling the curd
No curd cutting traditionally involved with Camembert – curd is ladelled directly into moulds and drained.


Full lower moulds


Filling the upper sleeves


Stored in cat-free zone to drain
Currently draining overnight, to be turned tomorrow morning, then salted tomorrow evening – they’ll reduce in size by about half, so should fit nicely in the lower moulds.


Salted curds in drying area
Curds have been salted and placed in drying area (18C @ 80% humidity), where they will remain for a couple of days being turned intermittently.
http://handyface.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/camembert/