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.