You will need...
- Equipment: saucepan, thermometer, colander, cheesecloth
- Ingredients: 2L milk, ½ tsp citric acid, 1/8 liquid rennet, ½ tsp salt, (optional: 2 tbsp. double cream)
Making Cottage Cheese...
- Dissolve citric acid in 50ml water
- Heat milk to 320C and remove from heat
- Add the citric acid and stir
- Leave for three minutes
- Dissolve ¼ rennet liquid in water. Drizzle half of this over the sur[1]face of the milk and stir gently for 2 seconds. Discard the remaining half of the rennet solution.
- Return the pan to the heat and warm to 400C
- Remove from the heat and leave undisturbed for 40 minutes
- Cut the curd into 1cm cubes
- Leave for 5 minutes
- Dilute whey: use a ladle to remove as much whey as possible, whilst being careful not to break up the curds. Replace the whey with water. Repeat taking away the liquid and replacing with water.
- Heat the pan to 560C.
- Remove from heat and leave undisturbed for 20 minutes
- Spoon the curds into a cloth-lined colander and allow to drain until most of the liquid has been removed
- Sprinkle ½ tsp of salt over the surface of the curds, use a spoon to gently break up the curds and allow a few more minutes of draining
- Transfer the cottage cheese into a bowl and break up the curds
- Creamy Cottage Cheese: (optional) add two tablespoons of double cream
Extra Information...
- Chives: cottage cheese is not complete without an enthusiastic dose of fresh chives, just chop, sprinkle and mix. ● A bit of history: traditionally cottage cheese was a way of using up milk that was past its prime. When milk had started to spoil, it was placed next to a fire to collect more bacteria and encourage the process. As the milk goes “of” it becomes acidic causing the separation of the curds and whey. The curds would be kept, rinsed and dried to make a crumbly cottages cheese. Our Quick Cottage Cheese method should hopefully give a much creamier and more consistent results! ● Fat or not: this recipe works with both full-fat and low-fat milk so try both and see which you prefer. The cottage cheese will be drier if skimmed milk is used.
