You just described a reciept for cottage cheese. My mother used to make it but she just let the milk sour naturally on it's own. I don't believe you can make any other flavor without ordering starters of yeast, bacteria or something. Try a smll amount with the ranch dressing to see how it works.

The Indian cheese "Paneer" is made similar to what you're doing, except the recipe I have has you add lemon juice instead of vinegar. After the curds have formed the cheese is suspended to drain & is then molded & pressed under weight in the fridge. When firm enough, it's cut into cubes & gently sauteed in ghee (clarified butter) & mixed into many vegetarian Indian recipes, the most well-know being "Panak Paneer", which is spiced spinach with cheese.

Thanks for the info so far. I like the idea behind the Indian cheese. I tried making cheese with the lemon juice but I didn't like it as well but mixing with spinch sounds great. Thanks Breezyb.

I used my cows milk today to make cream of chicken soup with noodles and mushrooms.(morel hunting coming real soon) WOW that was really good. But now I don't have enough for cheese making today. (I share my milk cow with 2 calves)

TedP2, My cheese taste alot like cottage cheese but it doesn't have the creamy texture of it, mabe if I saved some cream back to add to it!! Also I been checking out rennet type plants such as needles. Has anyone tried this? We raise calves but it doesn't appeal to me on using animal rennet. I've got a short list of plants but I can't really find anything on how to use them to make the cheese. Seems to be a very well hidden secret. Thanks for your info.

Sherrie

I have seen a recipe for ricotta that calls for adding cream back at the end, so I think it is legitimate to do so for cottage cheese also.

I would recommend you read the section on cheesemaking in the book "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee. A new edition just came out so check your library.

I don't know what needles are, but I do know that "vegetable rennet" can be extracted from cardoons (closely related to artichoke, a kind of thistle). McGee says "flowers of the wild cardoon thistles are collected and dried in the summer, and then soaked in warm water in the winter to make sheep and goat cheeses."

And though I respect the principle of doing as much as you can with your own products, I suspect that you're not _that_ firmly wedded to the idea (ranch dressing mix?), and you might want to try a few batches with purchased rennet just so that you know what it looks like when it is working correctly!

I'm having a lot of fun with the book "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carrol.

Best of luck,

Katey

Reading further in McGee: "The cardoon rennets are unsuited to cow's milk, which they curdle but also turn bitter."

I'd try it anyhow, but not with a very big batch! I know I have seen "vegetable rennet" tablets or liquid sold for use with cow's milk, so maybe there is another plant?

Katey

I found an easy cheese recipe in an old HEART OF THE HOME cookbook by Capper's Weekly. No cheese press is needed for this cheese. I have tried it many times. I used live-culture plain yogurt to culture my fresh milk.

1 1/2 gallons clabbered milk
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup soured cream
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cheese coloring (if desired)
Heat clabbered milk for 30 minutes at a temperature of 110 - 115 degrees farenheit. Strain and squeeze curd until fairly dry. Place curd in mixing bowl and stir in soft butter and soda until well mixed. Let stand covered for 2 1/2 hours. Put on stove in double boiler, adding soured cream, salt and cheese coloring. Cook until it looks like melted cheese. It will take a little while for the curds to melt into the cream. Stir constantly during this process. Turn into a buttered mold. I use a rectangle plastic container. Chill until set and slice to serve. This cheese melts well.
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Have made cottage cheese with basically the same process you've used. Have you also tried Yogurt? You can make a really nice product with the little 5-cup yogurt makers available -- they're even easy to find at garage sales and goodwill stores. Use clabbered milk as a starter. It's just what it sounds like. Put a half-cup or so of milk in a little crock with a lid. Add a few drops of vinegar and cover. Let stand for a week or more. When you use out of it, add a bit more milk for the next time. Your yogurt should have a commercial yogurt for starter. Plain yogurt with the active bacteria - I forget just how it's stated on the carton. You only have to buy it once, then you can just use a scoop of your own yogurt for the starter for the next batch. Yogurt needs to be flavored after making, not during. As for flavoring the cheese, try some caraway seed or some herbs in the final step. Italian seasoning is kinda nice, too. Enjoy!

I have made yogurt using a food dehydrator and the bread proofing setting on my electric oven. You can make a cream cheese-like product by simply hanging your yogurt in a cheese cloth bag and letting it drain all of the liquid out. This is not quite as delicious as the real thing, but it is easy to make and cheap. Have you tried the book THE COMPLETE DAIRY FOODS COOKBOOK? It has some great recipes for using dairy products and a section on making cheese.

Another reference/recipe book is Stillroom Cookery, available at my library.

I have just started making cheese. The rennet we use here is called chymosin, which is made from bacteria. The product is animal free, but uses a genetically modified bacteria.

here is the blurb on it:
Genetic engineering techniques some 'vegetarian' cheeses made using chymosin by genetically engineered microorganisms. The genetic material (DNA) which enables chymosin replication is placed into a microorganism which is then cultured producing chymosin. This chymosin is identical to that found in calf rennet. The organisms used to produce GE Chymosin are either a yeast, Kluyveromyces lactis, or a bacteria Escherichia coli.