Alton Brown’s Way of Making Cottage Cheese with Vinegar
I have always been a fan of cottage cheese. What is not to like about these little creamy curds. A long time ago I saw Alton Brown making a batch of homemade cottage cheese on an episode of Good Eats. I put that recipe on my to do list but didn’t get to it until I had a gallon of milk that was right at the door of it’s expiration date. So I decided to give it a try, because I had nothing to lose. You will find my notes from this recipe below. For the full recipe visit Food Network’s website.
1. First off I had to made some changes. So I am more following Alton’s technique than a down to the letter recipe. His recipe calls for skim milk, I had whole milk (ok so mine is going to be a little more fattening). He also called for white vinegar, I only had apple cider vinegar on hand. But nevertheless I decided to go forward with these changes.
2. You begin by heating up your gallon of milk. I used a candy thermomter
3. It was fun to stand there and stir the milk as it began to curdle right before my eyes. After a couple mintues, it was clear that I had made cheese curds. Now only to get rid of this excess liquid.
4. I used a kitchen towel over top a colander. You don’t need to buy cheesecloth. After 5 minutes, it was time to run the curds under cold water, while squeezing them inside the towel.
5. I decided to eat mine a little later, since I like my cottage cheese nice and cold. So I put it in the fridge for a couple hours. Then when it was time to eat we added a little bit of half and half until it was the right texture.
In the end I was surprised how much it made. I saw that the yield was to be 2 cups, so I thought that wouldn’t be enough. But we ended up making 4 servings out of it. And the taste and texture was different than what I was use to. There is a freshness to it, that I haven’t experienced with cottage cheese before. I will definitely do this recipe again, but I might try reducing the fat and seeing how I like it then. The apple cider vinegar works well, without giving the cottage cheese any funky tastes.
Recipe Grade: A
If you really want to get into home cheese making I recommend the book “Home Cheese Making” by Ricki Carroll. I own the book and I find it to be a great resource on how to start making your own cheeses. It has more simple recipe like the one that brought you to my blog today.
im going to try this tomorrow