As the title reads, I did an experiment. I will tell you now that while it was not a total failure, I need practice. LOTS of practice.
As I mentioned on my Facebook page, I saw an article about making homemade cheese from powdered milk. I was curious, so I started to research and came across a video on YouTube for making sliceable cheese. I watched others but this one was easier to follow along (and I had all the ingredients except the cheddar flavoring) so I went for it. I did run across another article that mentioned adding salt to the mix for flavor and I also added some liquid smoke but I am getting ahead of myself.
With my normal enthusiasm, I dove into the project, making sure I had everything I needed at hand. The recipe used in the video is:
- 6 Cups of instant powdered milk (use half the amount if it’s not instant)
- 1 1/2 Cups white vinegar
- 1 gallon warm water
- 2/3 cups vegetable (or any) oil. This will help it melt so I guess if you are not wanting it to melt you could skip this ingredient.
I always wanted to make homemade cheese! Have YOU ever tried it? Leave a comment below!
I also used about 2 tsp of salt and 5-6 drops of liquid smoke.
I measured out the powder and add water to it. Holy foam! There was at least 2 inches of foam after making sure it is really mixed up. I used warm (not hot) water from the tap to mix with. I wanted to let the foam go down some so I waited 30 minutes. I came back and it did not look any different. I waited another 20 and the same result. I decided to just go for it, it’s what the lady on the video looked like she did! I turned on the heat and slowly brought it up to 110 degrees (F). I went to measure out the vinegar and realized that I forgot the oil so quickly added it and stirred it, worried that the heat was getting too high. I likely did not stir the oil in long enough before I was measuring the vinegar and turning the heat off. The temp had gotten to 120 degrees (F) by that time I was a little concerned about it but kept pushing forward.
As soon as that vinegar hits the milk, the curdling starts. An absolute instant reaction which made me feel rather like a mad scientist and I may have cackled a bit while I kept stirring, but thankfully no one can prove it. One difference I noticed though was a large ball formed much more quickly than it did in the video and I am thinking the higher heat may have had a play in it. So I keep stirring, likely long after I should have quit and then strain the whey out. I just tossed the whey (I know, I know. I can hear some of you screaming now, “NOOOO!!!!” but I will not be using whey any time soon) and let it sit about 20 minutes. When I came back, I worked the salt and liquid smoke into the loaf. It had a very weird texture. Yes, cheese-like but not quite. Very…elastic. I noticed as I was working in the flavoring that a lot of moisture was coming out which I think is what kind of ruined it. I tried to shape it into a loaf and wrapped it in cheese cloth but had no idea if I was using too much or not enough. Did I mention I will need practice?
So here is the final product. Is it cheese? Technically. It is sliceable as you can see but it sure looks more like some kind of bread dough than cheese. The taste was rather bland and I believe there were many factors that contributed; too high of heat, oil not stirred in enough, not allowed to drain long enough, and the moisture being squeezed out too much (along with the flavor I was trying to work into it). Overall it was not a complete and utter failure. It is edible but a bit lacking in the tastiness department. It will definitely take more research and experiments to get the making of cheese from instant milk to a more palatable level. I suppose if you think about it, the times you would truly consider making cheese from instant milk might be in a world where even the cheese I made today would seem a luxury. After 3 or 6 months of not having any cheese whatsoever, it would likely be the best you ever had.