Cheese Making a Success - so far

Thus far, the cheese making has been a success. I decided to make my first effort a soft cheese, similar to Feta - but without brining. I will add some herbs to it when it has cured a day.

Yesterday I started with Abbey's generous donation of 2 gallons of milk, cream removed. After warming the milk to room temperature, I added 1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt and left it to sit overnight. This morning I warmed the mixture carefully to 86 degrees over a pan of hot water and added 1/2 a rennet tablet dissolved in a tablespoon of water. I left it to sit on the counter.

After a couple hours, it had curdled and I cut the curds with a knife and left it to sit another hour.

Over a pan of hot water, I gradually raised the temperature to 96 degrees, taking a hour to do it. Stirring occasionally, the curds firmed up.

I strained off the whey in a collander and dumped the whole pile into a cheese cloth, tied it up and hung it by the sink to drain further.

Tomorrow I will add salt and garlic to half of it and leave the rest plain.

The left over whey is not going to waste...I am now carefully raising its temperature to nearly boiling and the resulting tiny curds that form now is Ricotta Cheese. Very flavorful.