Real Rawheads Make Their Own Squeaky Curd

I (somewhat embarrassingly) wrote about recipes that should never be cooked . When writing down this recipe for cottage cheese curds, I sincerely assumed that no one would follow my example; it was simply too labor intensive for such chaotic times. I’ll tell you a secret: I don’t even like cheese, at least I thought so.

As with Sprinkles Cupcakes, In-N-Out and Krispy Kreme, the allure of squeaky cottage cheese has eluded me. But I set out to present the whole spectrum of cheese making (and food), and without cottage cheese this series seemed incomplete. (Plus, people seem to really like Putin.)

What shocked me to the core was this: at the end of a 14-hour cheese-making day, when one would have thought I didn’t want to do anything but throw the milk out the front door, I found myself obsessively nibbling on the damn cottage cheese. . They were downright addictive, a thought that never crossed my mind, not once, in all the time people shoved cottage cheese in my direction.

They had a deep savory flavor and a soft resistance when I bit into them rather than the rubbery texture I often see in restaurants. The creak sounded fresh. While making your own cottage cheese is a heck of a journey, I suggest putting on a bucket helmet and riding around. It turns out that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a bowl of cottage cheese.

A squeaky cheese curd adapted from Gavin Webber’s recipe .

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon milk, not UHT (may be pasteurized, VAT pasteurized, or raw).
• 1/8 teaspoon mesophilic culture
• ½ tablespoon of calcium chloride dissolved in ¼ cup of distilled water.
• Dissolve ½ tablespoon of rennet in ¼ cup of distilled water.
• 1 tablespoon non-iodized salt

Equipment ( recommendations for choosing equipment can be found in our buying guide ):

• Pot 6 liters or more
• 3 liter saucepan
• Stainless steel colander
• Gauze
• measuring spoons
• Thermometer

Customize your space

As with all cheese, cleanliness is inextricably linked to cottage cheese. Make sure that the pot, countertop, all necessary and used utensils – from measuring spoons to a thermometer, faucet and sink – are all freshly washed and disinfected with white vinegar or a disinfectant solution. Keep a spray bottle of vinegar and clean towels nearby.

Boil water in a saucepan on the stove and submerge the cheesecloth in it for at least a minute, then scoop it out with sanitized tongs and strain it over a colander before you begin.

Once you get started, you don’t need to wash the dishes or anything else in the kitchen, as this can contaminate your cheese with drips. If you have enzymes, cover or move them so they don’t contaminate the cheese. We need a sterile environment.

Heat milk and add some culture

This is a long term cheese recipe, so we’re going to save our hands by using a steamer to heat the milk. If you are working directly on the burner, you will have to stir all the time. On a steamer, it’s a little more gentle, so you can let the milk get to the right temperature with less stirring.

Set up a saucepan with a few inches of water and place a six-liter (or more) saucepan on it. Make sure the thermometer is attached to the pot, then add the milk. Our target temperature is 88℉, so it won’t take long. Once you reach this temperature, turn off the burner but do not move the pot of milk.

Add your culture: in this case a mesophilic culture. It’s a powder and you want to make sure it’s not lumpy – that’s a sign that the culture is bad. It should flow like salt. Sprinkle it over the milk, but do not stir; put the lid back on and stand back for five minutes. This will allow the culture to rehydrate and not clump when mixed.

Remove the lid after five minutes and stir for a full minute, all 60 seconds. Then close the lid again and set the timer for 45 minutes. We’ll let the culture mature, so go take a nap at the disco.

Add rennet and cut curd.

After 45 minutes, remove the lid and you will see that the cream has floated to the top again. At this point stir the milk to form a small cyclone, then add the calcium chloride. Continue stirring for a minute.

Continue stirring, add the rennet solution to the milk, then continue stirring for a full minute in a figure-eight motion. After a minute, calm the milk by continuing to hold the spoon in the pan, then cover it with a lid and set the timer for 40 minutes. This will give the curd time to set.

When the timer goes off, remove the lid and use a knife to check for a break. Your knife should cut the curd neatly, with the curd retaining its (new) edge and shape after you remove the knife. If you have a clean gap, go ahead. If you don’t, close the lid, wait another ten minutes, and repeat the test.

Once you get a clean break, cut the curd into ½ inch cubes. Start by slicing a vertical column in one direction, then rotate the pan and make another set of cuts, this time perpendicular to the first set, like a net, over the top of the milk. Then cut it diagonally into ½ inch segments, crossing the first pair of cuts. You are aiming for ½ inch cubes.

Cover and stand for five minutes to allow the curd to heal. I don’t know what it means, but we often say it in cheese factories. Curd needs time; go smoke.

Warm up the curd

At this point, you should see the whey on the surface of the pan and the curd should sink. Turn the heat back on to medium or low and gird yourself. We are going to bring the milk temperature to 102℉, but we will do it so slowly that you will cry, but you will cry with steel biceps. Stir continuously for the 30 minutes required to reach this temperature. Don’t go in circles; start with a spoon at the bottom of the pan, raise the curd to the surface of the whey and repeat this movement over and over again.

When stirring, the curd will fall apart and become smaller. Once the temperature reaches 102℉, turn off the heat and stir for another 30 minutes, keeping the temperature around 102℉. I know. I’m sorry. During this time, the cottage cheese should harden, but it will be difficult to notice.

One way to find out is to compress them a bit. Wash your hands, including nails. Sprinkle your washed hands with vinegar, then take the curd, take a handful and squeeze it. If they stick together, they’re fine. You should still be able to push your thumb through and break them apart, but if they don’t stick together, stir for another 10 minutes and try again.

Once the curd has bonded as described above, it’s time to take a break for 15 minutes so the curd can rest.

You’re not done with this serum yet

Place a colander lined with cheesecloth over the pot to collect the whey. Slowly pour the curd and whey into a colander and let everything drain for 10 minutes. The curd should form a plate.

Place a new pan of whey on the stove and heat it to 115℉. It does not need a double boiler, it can work directly on the burner. Once the temperature reaches temperature, turn off the heat. Take a colander full of cottage cheese and place it on the pot like a lid. Place the lid of the pot on a colander so that the curd is under it and let it sit for fifteen minutes.

Remove the lid from the pot, then take a piece of cottage cheese and turn it over. Repeat every 15 minutes for the next hour. Resist – and I realize this sounds impossible – tasting cottage cheese.

At this point, the curd should stick to each other in the form of a single slab, and this slab should have a shiny surface. If not, keep scrolling.

Once the surface is shiny, transfer the plate to a cutting board and cut it into your desired curd size. This is a personal preference, but I like ½ or 1 inch rectangular curd. Transfer the cottage cheese to a container and mix with salt. Close the container with a lid and shake it with an appreciation you’ve never felt for all the squeaky curds of past meals. It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known. Who knew that making squeaky cottage cheese was so tiring? You didn’t.

But you did it.

Just kidding. You haven’t finished yet.

You have to make them creak

For the last step, put the salted curd back into the colander over the pot, turning off the heat. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave there for 12 hours to drain. This is the move that makes them creak. But when you wake up, you will have homemade, really squeaky cheese (and a very sore hand). You can keep them in the fridge for up to two weeks, but let’s be honest: you’ll eat them before your hand has had time to heal.