Cheese Made from Powdered Milk

If you never made cheese before, and are wanting to try it, this is an excellent recipe to start with. It is fast, easy, and if you follow the directions, you will probably succeed. While the finished product is good, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being excellent) I would give the taste a 6. My hubs gives it a 7. Most likely, that is because as with any homemade thing, homemade always tastes a little different than store bought. Either way, it is a good recipe to have on hand in case one needs/wants cheese sometime and cannot, for whatever reason, get to the store.

Cheese from Powdered Milk

Makes about 2 pounds of cheese

3 cups hot water

4 ½ cups non-fat powdered milk

½ cup oil

1 ¼ cup vinegar

additional hot water

cold water

additional oil

• Lightly grease a medium size pan with oil by rubbing oil on sides and bottom of pan with a paper towel.
• Put pan on a hot burner til oil starts to smoke.
• In a blender add powdered milk to the 3 cups of hot water. Mix well.
• Add ½ cup oil to the milk (this is so the cheese will melt in cooking like store bought cheese does) Mix well
• Once the oil in the pan starts to smoke, remove pan from burner and add milk mixture all at once and quickly. (Otherwise the milk will scorch and it won't make for good cheese.)
• Add the vinegar to the milk DO NOT POUR IN MIDDLE OF PAN Pour the vinegar around the outer rim of the liquid.
• Gently stir until the curds separate from the whey. When it is totally separated, the whey will be a yellowish color and the curds will be white.
• Drain the curds in a colander that is set over a pan.
• Rinse the curds with hot water to rinse more of the whey off of the curds.
• Then rinse off the curds with cold water to set the curds.
• Consistency of the curds will depend on how long you let it drain. For a spreadable cheese, let set for 3 minutes. To be able to slice the cheese, let it set for 10 minutes. To be able to grate the cheese, 1 hour. (more on letting it set one hour further down.)

If you are wanting this to be mozzarella cheese, simply add ½ teaspoon of salt, and mix well. Place cheese into either a cheese cloth, or the toe of nylon stocking. Squeeze out any remaining whey and place into a dish. Set some kind of weight on the top of the cheese. (This is to press the curds together.) Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

If you want to have cheddar cheese flavored cheese, add 3-4 Tablespoons of cheddar powder. (Cheddar powder can be found at Amazon.com or numerous other places on the Internet.) You can either eat it right away, or if you are wanting to slice or crumble the cheese,  place cheese into either a cheese cloth, or the toe of nylon stocking. Squeeze out any remaining whey and place into a dish. Set some kind of weight on the top of the cheese. (This is to press the curds together.) Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)