Tuesday, 12 February 2013

The Alchemy of Making Dairy Products: a Frugal Cook's Guide

 I love the taste of creamy butter, rich yoghurt and indulgent clotted cream and with a with a bit of time these can be produced on a small scale in a home kitchen. The benefits of making dairy products at home is not just saving money, but the delights of watching milk transform and the ability to control what goes into your cheese and yoghurt.
I have derived great pleasure from indulging in the alchemy of turning milk into delicious butter, cheese and yoghurt and what's more I didn't need any specialist equipment for producing basic recipes for own consumption. I have found that a floating dairy thermometer is a good investment (if you want to make cheese) along with a maslin pan, but these are not essential to begin with. You will need a good square of muslin available from habadashery shops. The one essential thing is good hygiene practice, you need to be extremely clean to avoid contaminating the milk and ensure that all your bowls and pans are scrupulously clean, santising and then scalding them with boiling water or running them through the hottest cycle of the dishwasher to sterilise them before use.

Recipe for Making Mascarpone Cheese at Home

Makes approx 500g

ingredients:

600ml double cream
a generous pinch of tartaric acid (from good chemists)

Method:

Put the cream into a stainless-steel pan and heat gently to 80 oC. Add the tartaric acid and stir constantly for ten minutes .
Curds should form
Next Line a colander with a sterilised muslin. (Sterilise the muslin by scalding it with boiling water). Spoon in the curds and whey.
Place the colander in a bowl in the fridge and leave overnight, allowing the whey to drain away completely.

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