Clotted Cream

I got an email asking how to make clotted cream. I had a general idea, but it was supplemented by an article in the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Here is a recipe which blends mine and theirs:

Original clotted cream is made from raw milk, not so easy to find these days…

1) Collect a pint (or more) of unpasteurized, unhomogenized cream or rich milk.
2) Gently heat until a semisolid layer of cream forms on the surface.
3) After it cools, skim off the thickened cream into a clean container.
4) Refrigerate.

I do not know how corporations make it.

How to Make Farmer’s Cheese

This simple cheese has several aliases. Two common ones are soft farmer’s cheese and “chevre.” They both are rather loose names.

“Farmer’s cheese” can refer to any of a number of different soft home-made cheeses which are eaten fresh.

“Chevre,” which actually means goat, could refer to many different cheeses. This recipe for “Farmer’s Cheese” is nearly identical with Neufchatel Cheese, the recipe for which I posted some time ago.

Note: I have modified this recipe from one I got from Julia Farmer a year or two back. She states that she got it from a book by Jean-Claude Le Jaouen, but did not mention the name of the book.

Ingredients

• Two gallons goats milk
• 1/4 cup cultured buttermilk
• ½ tablet Rennet (or two drops of liquid rennet)

Directions

1. Warm milk to room temperature (68-70°F)

 

 

 

 

2. Dissolve 1/2 of a rennet tablet in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Stir in buttermilk, mix thoroughly.

4. Stir in rennet, mix thoroughly, cover, let sit for 24 hours.

 

 

 

5. Check for clean break.

 

 

 

 

The curd should be firm enough to cut into 1/2 inch cubes (see page on Making 5 gallons of milk into cheese for pictures). Some recipes call for stirring the curds into a slurry, and pouring into a fairly tight weave bag to drain.

However, if the weave is too loose, such as with a single layer or two of cheese cloth, the fine curd will run through at first. I far prefer to cut the curd as it makes for more easily separated curds and whey.

6. Ladel the curds into a sterile cloth in a strainer (or colander), and suspend in a refrigerator or cool place.

 

 

 

 

7. Let the whey drain for 24 hours in a cool place.

Salt to taste (about 1-2 teaspoons), store covered in the refrigerator for a week or two. This cheese will not keep for much longer.

 

Julia Farmer further says that you can:

• Press into small cheese molds for little cheeses
• Roll them in ashes, place in a jar with garlic and herbs, cover with extra virgin olive oil
• Use it in cheese cake
• Whip the cheese up with some powdered sugar, vanilla extract and a bit of lemon juice until its well blended and then serve as dessert with sliced strawberries over the top.

Or…
“You can add a pinch of penicillium mold with the starter and cure them at 50°F for a Brie/Camembert clone.” I have not tried that one yet, but have made Blue Cheese with these curds with great success.

Making Paneer at Home, Illustrated

Making paneer (or panir) is a simple exercise in acid/heat precipitation of protein.  The only challenge is not to burn the milk while you heat it to hot but not boiling.  A thick bottomed stainless steel pot should do, but lacking that, try heating the milk in a water bath so that the volume of water stabilizes the temperature. Here is my recipe for panir:

Assemble the ingredients and equipment: one gallon of fresh milk in a stainless steel pot with a thick, heat dispersing bottom 1/4 cup white vinegar

Heat the milk slowly, with occasional stirring, until it is 85 C. If you do not have a thick bottomed pot, heat the milk in a double boiler so that it does not scortch on the bottom.

Once you reach 85 C, remove from the fire. Skim the “skin” from the surface of the scalded milk (hot protein, exposed to the air, forms the skin.)

Stir in the 1/4 cup white vinegar, making sure to evenly mix it in as soon as it is added. You should see clabbering within a few seconds, and it should be fairly complete after a minute.

Cover and chill to solidify the curds, around 10 C.

At 10 C, the curds will be firm and well formed. Do not stir the curds and whey!

Line a collander with a fine cloth (here, a handkerchief which has been boiled to sterilize it), place on top of a large pot and decant the whey through the cloth. After the whey has been decanted, gently move the curds into the cloth.

Here, the curds are ready to be drained. Pick up the four corners of the handkerchief and secure with a double loop of a strong rubberband.

Hang the assembly by the rubberband to drain for several hours or overnight in a cool place.

Open the drained curds, and rewrap to place in a press. Here is a page describing how to prepare a “Fankhauser” press from materials which may be around your home.

The press has been assembled, and we now wait until the next day to unwrap our present of paneer!

Here is the round of paneer (the follower from the press in in the background.

Place on a non-reactive plate, and use immediately, or seal in a plastic bag and use within two weeks. (Fresher is better.) P.S. We used a little of the fresh curds to make Sag Paneer before pressing, so you should get more paneer than this from a gallon (about 1 lb 14 oz or so)

Related

Setting Up a Home Made Cheese Press