There’s No Such Thing As Knowing Too Much About Cheese

How do people make homemade cheese?

Here is one of the easiest and quickest methods to make cheese at home:

1. Heat Your Milk

The kind of milk you use is important, though you have lots of options. The most important thing is to avoid ultra-pasteurized. The casein in ultra-pasteurized milk has been denatured, which keeps it from being able to form curds. If you can get your hands on it, raw milk will give the cheese more flavor, but it’s also hard to find, and more expensive than generic pasteurized milk, which still yields a delicious product.

If you only have non-fat milk in your fridge, don’t worry, it will work. It won’t be any healthier, and it will yield a smaller batch of cheese, but it works fine in a pinch.

Once you’ve chosen your form of liquid dairy, bring a gallon of the milk to a boil over medium heat, stirring it constantly to avoid burning.

2. Add Vinegar

Now here’s where the fun happens. Once the milk boils, turn the heat to low, and add ½ cup of either white or apple cider vinegar, while continuing to stir. The mixture should immediately separate into curds and a yellowish-greenish liquid called whey, which is caused by the acid curdling the milk.

If this separation does not occur, just keep adding vinegar until it does.

3. Drain

As soon as the curds separate, pour them through a strainer. Make sure to keep the whey that is strained off (more on that to come), and then rinse the curds with cold water. Draining and rinsing the curds immediately is the key to a cheese with good texture; the longer the curds are cooking, the more rubbery the cheese.

After rinsing, apply pressure to the curds to express any excess liquid.

4. Season

Here’s where you add flavor to your cheese. You can add Kosher salt or sea salt. If you want to have a little fun, add any other seasonings you like, chives or freshly cracked black peppers, for example.

5. Dry

After seasoning, wrap the cheese in cheesecloth (or any food-safe fabric will do, like an old, undyed cotton T-shirt), and let it sit an hour or two before moving to the fridge. You can crumble it after it dries, or keep it in a ball to put on crackers.

What is the difference between Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese?

While there are many differences between Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese, it is notable that the former comes from Italy, while the latter is said to have originated in England.

Cheese is a major ingredient used in many delicacies these days. As a dairy product, cheese is widely manufactured, sold and consumed all over the world. Be it kids, adults or older adults, everyone enjoys a good spread of cheese in their meals. Given the kind of popularity and following that cheese enjoys, many different types of it have come into existence, such as the mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Like it happens with many variants of cheese, mozzarella and cheddar are often thought to be the same, but it isn’t so.

Originating in Italy, mozzarella is a kind of cheese that is known for its soft and chewy texture. Mozzarella cheese is usually made from the milk of the water buffalo and is white in color. Its color can change to yellow as well, depending on the diet of the animal that the milk is derived from. Cow’s milk is also sometimes used in the preparation of mozzarella cheese.

Cheddar cheese has its place of origin as the Somerset County of England. It’s a type of cheese that has a hard texture and appears to be yellowish white in color. Made using milk from the cow, cheddar cheese is probably the most commercially produced cheese variant. It is produced in countries such as Australia, Belgium, United States, Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden among many other countries.

Mozzarella and cheddar cheese vary in more ways than one. Mozzarella cheese has quite a long life; it can be preserved in the refrigerator for about one month, and in some cases, it can be preserved for more than 6 months as well. However, cheddar cheese has an even more astonishing shelf life, as it can be preserved up to 60 months at a stretch. Cheddar cheese is frequently pasteurized, but mozzarella cheese doesn’t require to be pasteurized very often. Further, cheddar cheese needs to be kept at a constant temperature and requires special facilities for storage, while its counterpart, mozzarella doesn’t require any such special attention.

Additionally, cheddar cheese needs to be packaged carefully because of the presence of calcium lactate in it, but mozzarella can be packaged easily and swiftly. Notably, mozzarella cheese is the more widely used option for making dishes like pizzas and pasta, as compared to cheddar cheese. Therefore, there are many differences between mozzarella and cheddar cheese.