Bridgett has experimented with making homemade cheese. If one has a cow or goats it’s a great way to process and store excess milk. However, we don’t have a cow or goats… However, we are both interested in doing things ourselves – We have a source locally for both raw cow and goat milk, and although it’s not inexpensive – it’s still interesting and fulfilling to make ourselves.

First up she worked on Mozzarella – this is a basic cheese and isn’t difficult to make, you can use whole milk from the supermarket as long is it isn’t Ultra High-Temperature Pasteurized. You do need some specialty items, however. These can be obtained online or in our case, the local homebrewers shop keeps cheese making supplies on hand as well.

I won’t go fully into the details of how to make it – there are a million recipes online for making fresh Mozzarella. This is the recipe she used: Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Getting the consistency right and the salt level right is the tricky part. After you get the curds drained of most of the whey – take time to get the temperature right, sprinkle with salt (No need for fancy cheese salt – Kosher works just fine and stretch/fold until the consistency is right.

Since this is homemade without the advantage of chemicals – store wrapped and use it within a few days (5 or so). We’ve noted the consistency starts to go downhill the longer it sits.

Feta is one of our favorite cheeses and I will say that until you have goat milk Feta – you don’t know what you are missing. The flavor is amazingly different than regular store-bought feta (usually cows milk). We have a local farmers market in Corvallis where we get this in the summer. However, Bridgett found a source for Raw Goats’ milk so gave it a shot.

The process is a little different than Mozzarella – but some of the ingredients are the same. One difference is the addition of mesophilic culture – obtained from our homebrewers shop. The first recipe called for a saturated brine soak – which resulted in a bit more saltiness than we’d like, however – it’s fixable with a rinse and the end result is still amazing. We are letting this age a little in the refrigerator.

For a different and simpler recipe – Bridgett is thinking of trying this one for the next batch: Homemade Feta Cheese.

One other good resource for cheese making of all kinds (including hard cheeses) is a book by Cole Dawson, Cheese It!

A note about something else you can make at home – Butter in a food processor. If you can get raw cream it’s better – but you can also use Heavy Cream from the market again as long as it isn’t ultra-pasteurized. Put the cream in the blender/food processor with a little salt and process it slowly until the cream solids separate from the buttermilk. NOTE: you will get whipped cream before you get to the butter stage! Drain in cheesecloth and kneed it to get out any remaining buttermilk. Get as much liquid out as possible, then refrigerate the butter.

Is it cost-effective to make butter this way? Not really, butter is pretty cheap but it’s fun and really does taste better!