Lactic Cheese

Lactic cheese is a creamy yogert type texture, and another easy to make cheese. Its like a cross between yogert, sour cream, cream cheese and a goat cheese. Plain it tastes like sour cream only a bit thinner, ( still currently draining). We theifed out some part way through draining and added some herbs and garlic salt, and put it on some crackers, very good.
Found the recipe on another web site and in doing some serching it is all over the place... so here it is with some of my notes.

1 gallon milk, non ultra pasturized.
1 packet direct set mesophilic starter
3 drops liquid rennet in 1/3 cup non chlorinated water, or about 1/4 tablet. (see note below)
Salt and spices

Heat milk to 86* and add starter. Some directions said to sprinkle on top and let set for a bit to disolve, I just stired it in. Mix thourghly.

Add one teaspoon of the liquid rennet solution, mix with an up and down motion. I miss read the instructions and added some of my own, I slowly added the entire 1/3 cup, not sure what the difference would have been but so far it has turned out pretty good. You can store the extra rennet solution in a jar in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Cover and let set undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours, large window here so no rush, I did the cook yesterday afternoon and let it set overnight. the next morning it looked like one big curd with a bit of whey around the edges. It tasted and smelled like sour cream.

Scoop curds into a colander with butter muslin. Tie the corners together and drain for 6 to 12 hours. the longer you let it drain the thicker texture it gets. I used a wooden spoon and hung it over an extra 6 gal fermenting bucket. Make sure it is up high enough to drain and not sit in the whey. I did my theifing at about 5 hours and you could see the texture difference. I took some from the edges for a thicker sample. At the time of this writing, it is still draining and will do so for a few hours more.

Once you have let it drain to your liking, put in a bowl and add salt or any varity of spices you like or leave it plain.

Store in covered bowl in the fridge for two weeks or freeze it.Says it makes about 2 pounds, i did not weigh mine, someone stole some..lol

Cheers

Doug you have my interest on this. I am assuming you can use 2% milk? I want to start making cheese that has less calories and less fat, which would mean 2% milk. Sargento's makes a jack & jill and a pepper jack that is full of flavor, so I want to make these cheeses next fall.

This cheese sounds really good.

Did read where you can use 2%.

We plan on splitting this up into a few different batches, at the moment it looks like: Garlic and herbs, Dill, and a cracked pepper.

Brew and Wine Supply said:

Did read where you can use 2%.

We plan on splitting this up into a few different batches, at the moment it looks like: Garlic and herbs, Dill, and a cracked pepper.

Click to expand...

OMG, when will it be ready? I'm tellling Mike we need to come out to your place for some cheese tasting.

Thats the nice thing about Latic cheese, its ready right after draining. I plan on spicing if a few hours and then letting it sit a few days to mull the flavors.

OK, just got done mixing spices, here is what we did:
Garlic salt and Herbs de Provendence
Dill and sea salt
Ground pepper and sea salt
Red pepper and sea salt

Now to let them sit in the fridge for a day or two for the flavors to meld and...

This is a great easy weekend project. Biggest thing is waiting, it takes no time to get it to 86* and mix in the starter and rennet. Then wait till the next day, scoop into the cheese cloth and wait 6 to 12 hours to get to the right texture. Transfer to containers and add spices and chill...

BTW, lots of sampling along the way...LOL

Brew and Wine Supply said:

Add one teaspoon of the liquid rennet solution, mix with an up and down motion. I miss read the instructions and added some of my own, I slowly added the entire 1/3 cup, not sure what the difference would have been but so far it has turned out pretty good. You can store the extra rennet solution in a jar in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Click to expand...

The difference is... it becomes thicker more like a cream cheese, we have been eating it with baby carrots and love it. Don't think it would work with a thin chip but a triscut or a ritz it would be fine.

So if you want a thicker cheese add more rennet, for thinner ( like a sour cream) add less... Alchemy at its finest..

Another note, salt...I divided the batch into four servings and spiced each different, added about a tablespoon of salt... too much,,cut it back to a teaspoon or less.. does'nt taste salty at first, thats why I added more but after it sits overnite it comes forward... go with a teaspoon, you can always add more later

Almost ready for another batch.....