Hi folks.  This is a recipe for "Black Hills Cheese."  Let me start by saying I'm dumb as a rock.  If a knuckle-dragging mouth breather like me can do this - so can you, as long as you have about a case of Black Hills Ammunition.  In a pinch, winchester white box, strapped together, might work, but it wouldn' thave that "Black Hills" flavor.

I really enjoyed Feral's post about mozzeralla....I figured with this post I could give you another view on a utiliitarian way of preserving milk that has either gone bad, or if your cow/goat produces an abundance you want to preserve.  I did not use a microwave, and tried to use natural and very basic materials.

Let's get started!  Today we are making Black Hills cheese.  You'll see why later.  Here is a shot of the materials I assembled.  Some it turned out I did not need. The 1911 and P mag were there just in case zombies invaded.


[something I did that you may not want to do, is I added a half cup of buttermilk and just let the milk set out overnight so that the culture in the buttermilk could populate the whole milk...this just added a distinct "cream cheese" flavor to the cheese.]

OK, in this next pic, I am heating the milk.  While I heated to just below boiling, at 168 degrees, I think the proper temp would have been 95 degrees.  Next time I will tweak it down a bit.


Once the milk rises to your target temperature, theres a couple of directions you can take here....I think the best route is the old fashioned cheese method of using something called "rennet."  It is available at whole food stores, and online, and inside the stomach of mammals that are ruminants, as well as baby goats.  I chose to purchase my rennet for now.  Maybe someone else can do a "how to" on extracting if from the stomach of a baby goat.  And before you get all grossed out, if you have eaten ANY cheese in your life you have by default also eaten rennet.  Get over it.  

In addition to adding rennet, I added 1/4 cup of wine vinegar and real lemon juice.  A brief word about SHTF cheesemaking - if all you had was milk and EITHER vinegar or lemon juice, you could make cheese.  You can add just lemon juice instead of vinegar or rennet.  I hear the cheese made with lemon juice can turn out rubbery.  But in a survival situation, I would use tomatoes, as they are high in the active ingredient, ascorbic acid.  Can you imagine a cheese with sun dried tomato inside?  On home made bread?  made with tomatoe juice?  So Experiment with different vinegars and sources of ascorbic acid- I read on frugals that using different vinegars will give you a different cheese.  


Skipping ahead a little here, I have used a slotted spoon to ladle the curds out of the liquid whey.  In just a moment, the curds seperate from the whey.  This can take 5 minutes, or 45 minutes.  Also, some folks put the cheese in a pot and then in a water bath to rase the temp to about a hundred degrees to further seperate curds from whey.   Curds are the solidified hunks of protein and fat that will shortly be cheese.  Whey is a clear, sometimes greenish liquid.  Once I strained curds from whey in a simple strainer lined with cheesecloth, I gathered the cheesecloth at the ends and tied it with mason's string/butcher's string.




Now I allow this poultice to hang here overnight to drain off any remaining whey.  The next step involves going to lowes or home depot and spending about 5 bucks on a survival forum cheese press.  Here are the components, see if you can figure out what they are.


That's right, high grade, high pressure polyvinylchloride mouldings to fine specifications.  Or schedule 40 PVC.  I chose the 4 inch sleeve and a threaded plug.

Place your sleeve on top of a plate.  Jam the curds down in there.  Shove the plug on top.  Put a can of Bush Grillin Beans on top.  Then weight it all down with a sealed case of Black hills ammo. It should look something like this.



A day or four later, your cheese "round" should look something like this.

You really want a taste of the grillin beans dontcha?  

Where you go from here is up to you.  Fresh cheese is awesome.  Let me repeat, AWESOME.  I got kids and a lovely little lady that like cheese, so this won't last long.  But if we were making this to store, the next step would be to leave it out on the counter overnight for several days, turning daily to develop a rind.  Then we'd wax it and age it at around 55 degrees F and around 80 percent humidity.  IN the alternative, you could smoke it in your smoke house for a day or so.  

If you put a dab on top of your head, your tongue would slap your brains out just trying to get to it.

Go forth and make cheese!

finally, a shot of me and my buds...

Nice write up - thanks!

Looks like a nice weekend project..

very cool.

A few years ago (before the kids took up more of my time) I was making a lot of cheese with the milk from our dairy goats.  I liked to add different things after separating the curds from the whey and before putting the curds into molds.  One of my favorites was chopped fresh jalapenos.  My sister-in-law's favorite was sundried tomatoes and basil pesto.  Just mix whatever it is into the curds and put it in your molds.  I had done some experimenting with making bleu cheese as well.  It came out really good but I need to see if I can find my notes from back then (If anyone is interested I'll make a point to find it).

This thread is making me want to get all my old stuff out and make some more cheese (I imagine the rennet and cultures that have been in my fridge and freezer for five years probably need to be replaced).

Your descriptions really made me laugh

Definitely going to have to try this

Nice job, thanks!

FerFAL

any good uses for whey?

Excellent.

Now all I need is a dairy cow...

The dairy down the road closed last year.  That was a sad loss.

Thanks FordGuy

I saved it to my food storage prep file.

GM

Excellent! Thanks. Did the block of cheese take the whole gallon of milk? Can you use heavy cream?

it took the whole gallon, but the whey that ran off was like water anyhow.  IF you use cream I bet it would be as awesome as bacon.

I was going to ask how much cheese you got from how much milk, but I see you got that covered.  Oh, but how much DID that block of cheese weigh?

Great ideas to add jalepeno's or sun dried tomatoes, etc... to the whey before molding.  That and smoking.

Any idea on what it takes to make a cheddar? or Colby?  I know the cheddar involves a process called ... <duh> cheddaring, but I don't know what that is.  Hmmm, time for a trip to google.

Thanks for the info.

ETA: Just wanted to add that I would LOVE to know how to make blue cheese (for the person in the thread that seemed to offer to look up their recipe)

The different types of cheese come from different cultures added to the milk and different processing methods.  

I used to pour the whey into my compost pile or pour it right onto plants that like acid soils.  Ricotta is actually made by recooking the whey to get anything that didn't make it into the original cheese.

Nice job, now I want to try my hand at that. You need to stop posting these great threads...

planets out of alignment, cats sleeping with dogs, everything out of kilter...but one tasty meal.

Thank you!

would you get a different type of lye soap if you poured it through wood ash?  I wonder if you could use it as a SHTF substitute for battery acid?  If you drink it, will it prevent scurvy?  Hell, would it CAUSE scurvy?  

in for my compilation for SHTF

sweet write up FG.  i told my wife i need to buy a case of ammo so that if the SHTF we can make cheese.

cool!

That was my intent - a pre packed case of black hills ammo is the perfect weight, very difficult to replicate.  Just go the easy route and use ammo.  (that should be "ammunition" in your debates with the wife!)

out fucking standing....

the mrs asked me just yesterday if we could make our own cheese, and I said I'd look into it... you just saved me some work!

Going to have to use Federal ammo though, hopefully M193 will work.

Can you let us know if it does?  

lol.  i'm pretty blessed, my wife was actually spearheading our preps before i got on board.  she realizes the need for guns and ammo.  our pattern is fill holes in the food stores, garden, livestock, etc., then spend money on the ammo.  repeat.  she bought me 2500 rounds of .22 for my bday last year, as well.

Cheddaring is a process of texturizing by taking slices of the curds and placing them on top of each other, squishing and repeating until it becomes layered (supposed to look like cooked chicken breast when broken in half). Not all recipes call for this since it is just a texturizing step.

To make the flavor of cheddar you follow all the steps the OP has mentioned and let it mature for 2-6 months. 3 months is supposed to make mild cheddar.

To make colby you pour off the whey and stir in cool water until the temp reaches 80 degrees and then pour into cheese cloth and strain. More water and the lower the temp then the softer the cheese and then just age.

Thank you! If O_P approves what else can you say?

MrHunterAA thanks for the additional info.

Great post!

Thanks for the info - now if someone would post the how-to on blue cheese, there would be joy at my place since we LOVE blue cheese (and it's cousin feta)

I made both bleu cheese and feta with goats milk back when I was milking goats and making cheese.  I'll see if I can find my notes/info on both.  I remember that for the bleu I took a chunk of a bleu that I really liked and blended it up with some goat milk and added it to my mixture.  That provided the bleu mold that then reproduced throughout the cheese.  I don't remember the specifics off hand but it was oh so delicious.

Bleu Cheese
I roughly followed this recipe.  I made some changes when I was doing it and they are reflected in the recipe.
Warm milk to 85°F and add 1/3 cup of a fresh mesophilic starter  per
gallon of milk, when the milk has been heat-treated or is very fresh,
and ¼ cup starter for older milk.

If using a DVI, use twice the recommended amount advised by the
manufacturer for heat treated or very fresh milk, and at the
recommended amount for older milk that may have some acid development.
I don't remember what this is

Try a starter that has Streptococcus lactis sub-species cremoris in it
for the best flavor.

Add two drops of liquid Blue mold to the milk.
I used one TSP bleu cheese blended in 1/4 cup water.  It was an expensive bleu that a friend had given me that was really good.  I don't remember what it was called but the mold was alive and well.

Ripen the milk to .18% acidity.
I don't remember how to do this or if I even did at all

Mix ¼ teaspoon liquid rennet per gallon of milk in ½ cup of water.
I used 1 Rennet tablet for two gallons.  
Mix into the milk and let set for an hour or until a firm curd is formed.

Cut the curd into one-inch block and let rest for 10 minutes.

Gently scoop the curd into cheesecloth-lined colanders and hang to
drain for 60 minutes.

Fill 4-inch diameter molds with the curd, packing the curd in firmly
with your hand to make the top & bottom surfaces smooth.   Leave the
cheese in the molds for two days at 65°F, turning the cheeses 6 times
per day for the first day, then 4 times a day for the second.
After a day or two I ran sterilized metal skewers through the cheeses in various places to create "veins" through which the mold could travel to get all through the cheese

Unmold cheeses and rub kosher salt on the surface.

Ripen the cheeses at 65°F in large plastic "sweater" containers at a
relative humidity of 95% for 1 to 2 weeks.



I think I had about 4 cheeses.  One of them I started eating after about 3 weeks (it was really good) Two of them waited a couple of months (they were really good (I like stinky cheese)) The last one I forgot about for about a year and even though I like stinky cheese I had to shit can it along with the container in which it was stored.

It appears that my feta recipe was one of the files that didn't get recovered off of the old hard drive

Sorry.

I seem to remember a brine being involved and you really need to pay attention to the salinity of that brine.  The first batch I made was so salty I had to rinse off every piece before I could do anything else with it.

Thanks for the thread FordGuy!  Thanks to the other contributors too, there is some great information in this thread!

AND, you have inspired me to actually make cheese!  I am in the process of making a quick mozzarella ... the first time I have made cheese!



Thanks again!

J.


I am using this recipe - it is very simple so far.

welcome!

this has been an awful tasty thread for me!  the cheese turned out wonderful...nothing like it!

Another question that came to mind is, if you are making it with only vinegar or lemon juice, just how much will do the job?

And thanks for a great write up!

I think it was just a couple of teaspoons per gallon.  If you put too much in the cheese will be rubbery.  If I remember right you need to bring the milk up to about 185 degrees if you are using those types of acid.  Put in a little bit of vinegar at a time until it starts to coagulate.  It happens pretty quick.

I'm going off memory for some of this so don't go solely off what I've said.

1/4 cup per gallon, so one or the other, or 1/8 plus 1/8 of each.

Nice!

Make ricotta with it. It isn't hard.

Alternatively, it makes good pig/chicken/dog food.

Excellent post... I've seen cheese presses of all kinds, from modern state-side ones to one made from a tree stump, circa 1960's milk crate and a big rock (down in Venezuela).

But never with a bunch of Black Hills.

Nice!

Is that some sort of a challenge?  A "cheese off" if you will?  You dare me to take whole cream, make cheese, and then somehow combine it with bacon?  You realize this would bring about the apocolypse?  If not the raising of Beelzebub himself, at least it would knock the planets out of alignment, dogs mating with cats, you know the rest....

*voice of Scottie from Star Trek* "Captain, I canna do it!  She's gonna blow!"

What happens if you don't press the curds?

It sounds delicious ,When reading the above posts I was thinking,add the textured soy protein bacon flavored bits and you would have bacon cheese.And those two combined could only be made better if in a CAN
dorson

Then you enjoy a delicious and nutritious bowl of cottage cheese.

Ok, so I did this...

1.  The M193 worked great, no problems there.
2.  One batch I ate after draining in cheesecloth for 6-8 hours.  It was similar to cream cheese but with just a hint of sour cream flavor.  Damned  tasty, especially mixed with fresh strawberries.
3.  The main batch I pressed for 2 days.  Moisture level was great, texture very good, taste was a little sharp/acidic

Edible, and very good melted, but I was disappointed with the flavor.  Trying to figure out what I did wrong....

A.  didn't sterilize properly? don't think so, there is no weird funk or taste, just too sharp.
B.  did not get a "clean break" when the curd separated?  maybe (is this temperature related?)
C.  I put in 1/4 cup of buttermilk (like the OP) and let it sit about 12 hours... perhaps this was too long and the result was too acidic to begin with


I'm going to try this again but without the buttermilk... the results were promising enough to warrant another try.

Okay, I was looking in one of my books of recipes for a cookie recipe and found a hard copy of the Feta recipe I thought was lost.  Here it is:
Feta

1 Gallon Goat’s or Sheep’s milk
1 Tbsp plain active yogurt (I used 1 packet of Direct Set Mesophilic Culture)
½ Tablet of rennet dissolved in ¼ cup water
Table Salt

Warm milk to 86 degrees.  Don’t let it burn.  Remove from heat.

Mix yogurt with equal part of milk to blend, stir into warmed milk.

Cover and let sit for one hour at room temperature.

Add dissolved rennet to milk.  Stir to mix thoroughly.

Let sit covered overnight.

The next morning the milk should have gelled.  Some of the whey will have separated.  Cut curd  - start at one side and cut straight down to the bottom.  Make the next cut ½ inch form and parallel to the first but sloping slightly (the sliced curd will be wider at bottom than top).  Repeat increasing angle with each cut.  Turn pot 90 degrees, repeat cuts.  Repeat two more times. The curd should be about ½ inch cubes.

With very clean hand and arm reach to the bottom and gently lift the curds to stir.  Cut any large pieces that appear with a table knife so that they are ½ inch cubes.  Continue for 10-15 minutes until curd is somewhat contracted.

Decant off the whey through a strainer lined with a handkerchief.  Pour curds into handkerchief.  Let drain until no more whey drains out (about 2-4 hours).

Pour drained curds into a bowl, break up the curd and mix in ½ tsp salt.

Press into mold as per basic cheese.  Line can with handkerchief, place curds inside, fold over ends of cloth, place end on top, place weight on top of that and let sit overnight.

Prepare brine: (12.5% salt) 20 ounces water plus 5 tbsp salt.  Stir to dissolve.

Cut cheese into 1.5 inch cubes.  Place into wide mouth jar and pour brine over to cover.  Let pickle for several days in the refrigerator.  The cheese will become drier and more easily crumbled with time.  Store in the fridge.  Rinse before use to remove excess salt.