I had some sour milk in the fridge and I didn’t want to waste it, so today I set forth on the non-trivial task of making cheese. First, I followed this convenient video by Self Serving Skillet. In the video he details the process of making farmer’s cheese. My milk started curdling at 110 degreed ferenheit, but I continued to head the milk to 190 F as suggested by Self Serving Skillet. Once reaching that temperature, I added a tablespoon of pickle juice to the pot. This didn’t cause any noticeable changes because the milk was already curdled at this point. Then I cut the heat and took the pot off the burner. While letting the mixture cool, I placed a folded cheesecloth in a bowl. I poured the mixture on the cloth and then lifted the cloth and twisted it as to close it into a ball. I then let the ball drain. After all the whey drained from the cheese ball, I placed the ball on a small plate and set in on a shelf in the fridge to let it harden. A quart of whole cream top milk yielded about 3 fl oz of farmer’s cheese.
Then, following this video, I started making ricotta cheese. I poured the whey back into my hot pot and brought it to 190-210 F. Letting it stay at this temp for 10 minutes allowed the ricotta to form at the top. I strained this through a cheesecloth and yielded about 1/2 tablespoon of ricotta.
Conclusion: 1 quart of milk is not enough milk to make a useful amount of cheese. Also the milk was too old and left a bitter taste in the cheese. Next time I will start with a gallon of milk that is not too old.