Making Farmer's Cheese from Scratch

"You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese." - Anthony Bourdain

Farmer's Cheese - Dall·e AI

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be making my own cheese at some point in my life, yet... here we are. Farmer's cheese is very easy to make, you can go from milk to cheese in about an hour. Whole or Goat Milk can be used. The only other essential ingredient is lemon. What are you waiting for? Let's make some cheese!

What You Need:

-1/2 Gallon Whole Milk (or Goat Milk)

-Pinch of Salt

-1 Large Lemon

-Herbes de Provence Herb Mix (or whatever herb mix sounds good to you)

-Cheese Cloth (used to make cheese, which is why it's called Cheese Cloth, bam)

-Colander (what you drain spaghetti with)

-Instant Read Thermometer (optional but very helpful)

What You Do*:

1) Add 1/2 gallon of whole milk (or goat milk) to a pot over medium to medium / high heat.

2) As it heats up, keep an eye on it and stir it occasionally.

3) When it's seems like it's just approaching boil (around 190 on the instant read thermometer), take it off the heat. Goat milk I take up to 200 since goat milk needs to be hotter for the curds to form since it has less fat.

4) Add the juice of 1 large lemon. Pinch of Salt and a few shakes of the Herbes de Provence mix can be added at this point if you want the easiest route. If you want the most flavorful route, add them later in Step 9, the heat will knock down the aromatics and taste of the herbs.

5) Mix the mixture

6) Let it sit for 30 minutes. Don't stir it during this time. You'll notice it separating out, which is perfectly fine. If you're using goat milk, it will probably keep looking the same and you'll think you messed it up. That's normal, the goat milk curds are much finer, like silk threads.

7) Line the colander with cheese cloth and put it in the sink

8) After the 30 in rest, pour your mixture into the cheese cloth

9) Add the pinch of Salt and a few shakes of the Herbes de Provence Herb Mix (if you haven't done so yet). Doing it in this step will result in a more flavorful / aromatic cheese since there isn't any heat to knock it down.

10) Quickly mix the herbs and salt in.

11) Let the cheese sit in the cheese cloth for 30 minutes to an hour. If you're going for a more spreadable cheese, do 30 minutes. If you're going for a more crumbly cheese go with an hour (or longer).

12) After the allotted time, gently squeeze out a little bit of the remaining juice (called whey) from the cloth. However much you squeeze out is up to you. The end texture of the cheese is fully in your hands in this step! If you choose to not squeeze anything out, you'll end up with a highly spreadable cheese that'll have the consistency more along the lines of yogurt. If you choose to squeeze out most of the juice, you'll end up with a crumbly cheese. It's up to you to find your preference. The sweet spot is in the middle, leaning slightly to the more spreadable side. Start with a light squeeze if you aren't sure.

13) Enjoy your cheese (or refrigerate)!

See, for cheese, that's a pretty insignificant amount of steps and time. Once you've done it a few times, you'll have the process memorized and it'll be second nature!

Pro Tips: For Goat Cheese, you can add more lemon juice if it seems like it's having trouble separating out, more acid will help it separate. Goat cheese is much better tasting (in my opinion) with this particular style of cheese, since goat cheese has a natural, light, tangy taste to it, which suits the herbs and lemon quite well.

Side Hustle Idea: Make and sell your own farmer's cheese at your local farmers market!

*Keep in mind I have no idea if these instructions follows health regulations or not and you make it at your own risk. However I have made this several times and have never gotten sick from it or anything of that nature. Make it at your own risk but you'll likely be just fine.