TA-DA! I made cottage cheese for the first time! And truthfully I have to say it---it is a miracle. Bonafide miracle. According to the recipe I was following it should have turned out tough as shoe leather. Here's the story:We drink raw milk. Alot of milk. I love to see the cream thick on the top of it. But I was itching to make some butter. So I skimmed almost all the cream off a gallon and put it in the food processor with the steel blade. Done in seconds! This yielded 10 oz. Formerly I was making about a half a stick in a quart jar 1/3 filled with cream that had sat on the counter for 24 hours. You shake it for 10 shakes, open it and let the gas out. Shake it another 20 times and let the gas out. Then shake it for about 5 minutes until the butter comes together. Carefully pour off the buttermilk (Yummy in pancakes or biscuits) and put the butter into a bowl. Using a rubber spatula press out as much buttermilk as you can and add to the other. Then using filtered water only rinse the butter with some, press the butter and pour it away. Do this until the water runs clear. (Happens quickly) There you have it. You can use pasteurized cream to do this but not ultrapasteurized. Neither do you need to leave it sit overnight. You can take it right off the milk or out of the carton and make it. Add some salt carefully (about a 1/4 teaspoon per pound) if you like. It freezes well but should be used in a few days if unrefridgerated unless kept in one of those French butter crocks where it is immersed in water.
Now to the cottage cheese. Since there wasn't any cream left on the milk I wasn't interested in drinking it, although skim raw milk is way better than anything bought in the store that has had powdered milk added to it. So I had picked up a book called "Stocking Up" at the thrift store that was put out in the 70's by Rodale. They had lots of pictures on using and making milk products. And it was simpler than I had read in other books. I took the skim raw milk and half a cup of buttermilk and put it in a stainless steel 8qt pot and covered it with--now don't laugh---tulle. I didn't have any cheesecloth but I have pounds of tulle. So I used clothespins to hold it on and put it in the oven with the light on for 48 hours. Smelled sour when I took it out but some of the whey had come to the top and the "milk" was like jello. I carefully sliced through this at 2 inch intervals and turned the knife kind of sideways because it was deep and cut through the middle. Now came the part I screwed up on and the miracle occured. I put this pan of milk in a larger pan that had simmering water under it (kind of like a double boiler). You are to bring the curds and whey(!) up to 115 degrees F and hold it there for 1/2 hour. They just wouldn't get above 105. So I put more hot water in the bottom kettle and turned it up. I walked away for what-- no more than 5 minutes--and I come back to curds and whey(!) at 150 degrees! Book says anything over 115 will make the curds tough. Well, I just banged my head against the cabinet 2 or3 times, took the pan off the stove and let it sit for 10 minutes, the amount of time left in the half hour. In 10 minutes the temp was 115! Fine, I said, put a colander in a large bowl and lined it with the tulle and ladeled the curd into the colander. The bowl would catch the whey to be used later for ricotta. I then got a jelly bag and put the curds in it to squeeze out a lot of the whey and then hung it from a cabinet knob to drain for a few minutes . I then plunged it into ice water and squeezed some more and let it hang again for 1/2 an hour. I poured it into the dish above and chilled it for several hours after which I added some salt and cream and it is goooooooooood! It's a little on the tangy side but the book said it would be. I am having some for lunch with pineapple. The miracle? it is wonderful and not tough at all. Praise God!
