HOMEMADE CURDLED MILK

Can you relate to that moment when you have to much milk hanging around for some reason in your fridge, and it’s too close to its expiration date for you and your family to consume it in time?

I got you! It’s time to stop wasting those gallons of milk and make some delicious cheese out of it, yes, cheese! All you have to do it keep it at room temperature for a few days, and, boom, you’ve got yourself some luscious cheese curds starting to form.

I remember having this as a child at my grandparents house, they would always make this and serve it in many forms, from buttermilk to a hard cuttable cheese.

INGREDIENTS

FOR REFERENCE, 1 LITER OF MILK WILL YIELD 300-350 GRAMS OF CHEESE

FOR THE CHEESE:

• whole milk

FOR SERVING (350 grams of cheese):

• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• freshly cracked black pepper
• fresh basil leaves
• chives or scallions
• Za’atar

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1

Dump all of your milk in a large jar (or any container really) and cover it with a cheesecloth (or a towel, poked saran wrap, or just loosely place its lid on top. Keep the milk at room temperature, anywhere in the kitchen!

The whole idea is that you do not want to place it in an air tight container, you want the air to be able to penetrate the milk, starting the fermentation of it.

Step 2

I can’t give you the exact number of days it will take for your milk to ferment, you will be able to tell that by simply looking at it and tasting it.

During the first couple of days, the milk will be in the kefir/buttermilk stage, then, it will start to fully curdle up and become a scoopable cheese. The more you leave it to ferment, the tangier it will become.

There are so many variables that play a role in the fermentation process, making it faster or slower, like: climate, temperature, humidity, the type of milk you are using, how old was the milk before you took it out to ferment (was it close to its expiration date or not?), etc.

Once the fermentation starts happening, the milk solids will start separating from the whey, creating this soft, tangy, curdy cheese floating in the jar. All milk contains bacteria and alive components, which feeds off of the sugars and other substances found in the milk. The compounds generated by that bacteria feeding process changes the pH of our milk, which will cause it to solidify and clump up.

SERVING IDEA

Step 1

Scoop the cheese out of the jar and add it to a clean bowl. If you want the cheese to firm up even more, mix some salt in it, pop it in a cheese cloth and let the liquid strain further away.

Step 2

Mix 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt (to taste).

Step 3

Add dollops of your soft cheese onto the serving plate. Drizzle olive oil on top, sprinkle some za’atar, fresh basil leaves, chives, freshly cracked black pepper and some flakey salt.

You can really have fun with it when it comes to toppings, here are some other ways you

could top this (substitute the labneh with your freshly made curdled milk cheese):

SWEET: POMEGRANATE TAHINI DIP

SAVORY: ROSEMARY GARLIC OIL

Serve this with any kind of bread, crackers or a crudité platter.