Cheese the Fourth: Queso Fresco

The Cheese: Queso Fresco (Carroll, p. 94)


The Milk: 1 gallon 365 Organic Vitamin D

The Starter: 1 packet direct set mesophilic

The Rennet: 1/8 tsp in 1/8 cup water

I'm finding it a little bit of a struggle to keep proper notes and to compose these entries in a timely matter. The newborn makes a convenient excuse, but mostly it is just me procrastinating.
I added a few new twists with the Queso Fresco. The first was to half the recipe, since we really don't need that much cheese around here. The second was to use the water bath to heat the milk rather than the stove. And the third was that this was my first cheese that used the press.

Sterilization was typical. I heated everything in the pot with some water for 5 minutes. I then transferred the pot to the sink, put the milk in the pot and filled the sink with warm water, which eventually raised the milk temperature to 90 degrees. I added the starter, and then misread how much rennet I should put in. I figured it out, but wound up wasting 45 minutes waiting for the cheese to set.

Even after getting the rennet right I never got a clean break. I pressed on anyway, and raised the temperature by adding more hot water to the sink, and letting the excess flow out. This method certainly wastes water.

I drained the off the whey, and poured the curds into a cheesecloth. The filled cheesecloth went into the press for 6 hours. I only used 30 lbs of pressure instead of the 35 lbs the recipe called for.



The top of the finished cheese out was oddly misshapen where the excess cheesecloth was. I should have put something flat on top of the curds and then wrapped the excess cheesecloth over it. Hopefully the coffee can lid I intend to use next time will work.

The ridges from the tomato can are obvious as well, but I consider that 'charming' and 'artisanal'

The cheese was actually pretty good, despite the rough appearance. I made quesadillas with it, and put a little bit more on some pinto beans. I'm not sure it really needed the pressing, since there are local taquerias that serve it with much looser curds.

A Pressing Matter

As my cheeses get more complex, they will start to require a cheese press to make. I'm not opposed to buying a press, but that seems a little out of place with the 'do it yourself' nature of this cheese making endeavor. So, I set out to make a simple press.

I picked up a can of tomato juice and a hinge just for this project. The rest of the materials were scrap wood I had lying around, and whatever screws I happened to have. Oh, and dumbbells from my set. Materials cost me $5, and I got a free pitcher of tomato juice in the deal.

I cut a 60 inch length of 2x4 in half, and nailed one half sticking straight up out of a garishly painted piece of plywood I had lying around. The hinge went on about halfway up, and the other half of the 2x4 went on the end of the hinge to serve as an arm. I screwed a small piece of scrap to use as a foot 7 inches along the bottom of the arm, and then screwed in some screws 14 inches past that on the top, so I could rest a dumbbell up there to use as a weight.

I had already cleaned the tomato juice can, and a slightly smaller can that originally held whole tomatoes. The curds, wrapped in cheesecloth, go in the juice can, followed by the whole tomato can. A 10 inch length of wood nestles in the whole tomato can. This whole arrangement is positioned so the upper end of the length of wood rests against the foot on the arm of the press.


Envisioning that without a picture would be pretty hopeless. Here is the press in action, with a 15 lb dumbbell. The further the dumbbell is along the arm, the more pressure it creates.

The whole apparatus is pretty simple and crude, but it is good for a beginner. There are still a few refinements I could do, but it seems to get the job done.

Cheese the Third: Uncooked-curd Cream Cheese

The Cheese: Uncooked-curd Cream Cheese (Carroll p. 84)
The Milk: 2 quarts Colver Organic Farms Half and Half (expressly not ultrapasteurized)
The Starter: 1 packet direct set mesophilic

"Even your kids can make and enjoy" according to the recipe.

At this point my kid is doing well if he can find his fingers when his hand is in front of his face. Then again, so am I. So this cheese was right up our alley.

I sterilized a pot, the thermometer, and a square of muslin for 5 minutes. But not a spoon. Oops.
I left the cream in the pot for a couple of hours to come to room temperature, then stirred in the starter around midnight. I left it untouched for 12 hours while it set, then drained it into the muslin. I tied the muslin off and hung it from a skewer over a pot (and resolved to hang a hook from the bottom of one of the kitchen cabinets to simplify the process) for 12 more hours.

The yield was 33.3 oz, which was actually more than the 32 oz I was supposed to get.
I split the cheese into two bowls, one with 24 oz that I was considering using with a cheesecake, and one with the remaining 9 oz for bagels and such.

The recipe called for salting to taste. I tried mixing in 1/2 tsp cheese salt with the 9 oz portion. This was probably just right, as my taste testers ranged from thinking it was 'not at all salty' to 'a little'. I mixed it well, I swear!

Tasting was done on a plain bagel. Consistency was a little softer than storebought cream cheese, and the taste was pretty similar. I think I'm the happiest with this cheese so far.

Non-Dairy Interlude

While my wife and I were sampling the Lemon and Orange Curd cheese from the last post, she started having strong contractions, about 4 to 5 minutes apart. Perhaps I should mention that she was 9 months pregnant and about a week past her due date. The contractions were the sign she wasn't going to be pregnant for much longer.

We took things slowly from that point, we went out to dinner, finished up a few errands at home (including my last post), and then went to the hospital, where my son Benjamin was born.

So, Lemon and Orange Curd cheese will forever be known to us as 'Benji Cheese'.

This should also partially explain why I'm mostly making simple and quick cheeses at this point.

I've been a little busy.