Herb Cheese

This herb cheese is made with the Farmhouse Cheese recipe I posted a short while ago.  This recipe is very versatile and is an excelled way to use up milk. It is not a kind of cheese that will melt on things.  But that doesn't take away from its wonderful qualities. 

You will need:

To make the farm house cheese from the recipe a few posts ago.

Cheese cloth  (plastic or cotton)(not the kind from Home Depo or the grocery store used to refinish furniture)

Large mixing bowl.

Non-iodized salt or cheese salt.  (The iodine in the salt will turn your cheese a green color if you use iodized salt) The amount most people use when salting this type of cheese is one teaspoon per cheese made from one gallon of milk. But adjust it for your taste.
Herbs - to flavor the cheese with.  I like to use Braggs most of the time.

I will start this recipe as soon as you have poured your just made cheese into your cheese cloth lined colander to drain. 

Only let it drain for the amount of time it takes you to wash up your pot, you made your cheese in, as you want it very wet to work with so you can blend in the salt and herbs easily and thourally.

I am using the farmhouse cheese made from two gallons of milk as I had so much to use up today.  ;)  That’s why my batch is so large.  Don’t worry, with my huge family it disappears very, very quickly!

Plop your wetish cheese into a very large mixing bowl.  Spread the cheese cloth back in the colander in the sink nicely for a moment.

Sprinkle one teaspoon of non-iodized salt over the cheese and using a large fork, work it in well.  Since I am doing a double batch I am going to use 2 teaspoons.  Now, once you put the salt in you can't take it back out.  So if you want to, sprinkle a little and work it in and taste it till you get it just right. William is my kitchen taster as I am allergic to so many foods (I have an auto-immune disease)  and believe it or not salt and dairy.  So he tastes everything I make to make sure it will be right for everyone else.  You know he just hates that.  :)

Once it is the right saltiness get the herbs you wish to use.  I like to use the organic herb mix from Braggs.  But you can finely chop onions or chives.  Fresh finely chopped rosemary from the garden.  Just what ever you put in chop it fine and mix it in well.  Tasting as you go along to make sure it is what you want it to taste like. (you know I have gotten lazy, and I make this so often, that using the Braggs organic herbs is quick, easy and tastes great!)

 Today since I am flavoring cheese made from two gallons of milk I will be using  about 2 tablespoons of the herbs.  If working with cheese from a gallon of milk use 1 tablespoon.  Again, sprinkle in just a little at a time.

Blend very well and taste till you get it the way you want it.  

As soon as William tasted it he went and grabbed a pack of crackers and the bowl of cheese and took off in slow motion wanting me to take a picture of him!  Silly young man that he is.  But he was serious and would have chowed down now if I would have said it was ok.  :)  And sometimes thats as far as it gets!

Scrape all the herbed cheese back into the cheese cloth lined colander and bind it up twisting gently to squeeze out a lot of the whey. 

Now we need to hang it and let it drain a bit.  You can use a clean, new cotton shoe lace for this and keep rewashing it with your cheese cloth.  I use very large rubber bands I can toss.  (See lazy)

So tie it off and hang it from a knob on your kitchen cabinet.  If you don’t have the knob kind get an “s” hook from Home depo to use for this.  Put a bowl under the dripping cheese to catch the whey.

You can let it drain now as long as you want, to get it as dry as you wish . Today I let mine drip for about 3 hours.

Ta Da!  Herbed Farmhouse Cheese!  This cheese is also incredibly versatile.  Keep in mind this cheese does not melt.  My kids like it on crackers.  They like it crumbled up on their salads.  You can cook pasta with steamed mixed veggies lightly buttered/salted or oiled and crumble this all over the top!  Or..Take a slice of italian bread, lighty butter it and lay a slice of tomato on it sprinkle a few pinches of shredded mozzarella and this cheese on it and toast it.  YUM!  See...get creative and have fun with your cheese!

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

May God bless you today and always!  

susan