Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Job 10:10

In our family, we usually don’t have a lot of leftover milk from our Milk Goats or Milk Cow. But, if we ever start getting quite a few gallons backed up, we like to make vinegar cheese!

It is one of our families favorites, and has a higher, better tasting yield when made from milk a few days old (but not sour).

Here is the recipe we like to use, and that works best for the amount we usually have that needs converted to cheese. You can half or double it and get the same result.

Homemade Vinegar Cheese

*Have your ‘candy’ thermometer on hand to monitor temperature

1 gallon milk (goat or cow)

1/2 c. White Vinegar

2 tsp. Real Salt

Pour your milk into a large pot and turn your stove on medium heat. Stir your milk and check the temperature frequently to keep it from scorching. When it reaches 180°, turn off your burner and add in your white vinegar. Cover with a lid, and set your timer for 20 minutes.

When your timer has went off, remove the lid. You should be able to see that the curds have separated from the whey.

Line a colander/strainer with cheese cloth/butter muslin, and pour your curds and whey into it. Tie the top of your cheesecloth/muslin and hang. (If you haven’t made cheese before, remember to put a bowl or pot underneath your hanging curds; this is to catch the whey as it drains out.)

You can let your curds hang for 1-24 hours. We like to just let it hang for an hour or two. The longer you let them hang, the drier the curds are. We just prefer ours more moist.

You can also take this recipe, and instead of hanging the curds, squeeze out most of the whey and put the remaining curds in a bowl. You can then add a little cream, and have something similar to cottage cheese. We enjoy it both ways.