Lessons in Dairy

This class covers the basics of dairy—how acid and bacteria form curds and whey. In class we make fresh ricotta, paneer, mascarpone, chevre and butter, and you sample them all with some delicious bread and a swig of wine. Today’s class is at Belmont Library. In this photo we are prepping the chevre and the mascarpone.

After 12 hours, once the chevre curds separate from the whey, the mix is poured into “butter cheese cloth” (finer than regular cheese cloth) and left to hang for 6 – 24 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onto the paneer and ricotta – the recipe is the same, just different ways of processing the cheese.

 

When you add buttermilk to heated milk, the acid from the buttermilk separates the curds from the whey.

 

Then you can pour the paneer / ricotta into cheesecloth just like the chevre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want ricotta, just let the whey drain from the curds and add salt. If you want paneer, gather the cheesecloth like the chevre above and press between plates for 2 hours.

 

These were the finished products we made in class:

 

Chevre:

Ricotta

 

 

 

 

We also did paneer (not pictured) and mascarpone:

 

And fresh, artisan butter (so easy to make in a food processor):

Everyone loved tasting the freshly made cheese with bread and fruit. Lessons in Dairy is a one hour class, held at your location.