Homemade Cheese on the Homestead

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I’m so glad Mrs. Terry likes to make cheese as much as she does because I love to eat cheese.

Let me repeat. I love to eat cheese.

It seriously may be one of my favorite food groups. I know it’s not really a food group, but in my humble opinion it should be elevated to one. Watching Mrs Terry make cheese over the past couple of years has been so interesting and educational. Words like rennet, wax, cheese press, cultures, whey are like happy little melodic sounds to my cheese-loving-ears.

I get really excited when I see her bring home several gallons of milk at one time because I know what’s coming. Yesterday we ate fried halloumi which I will be talking about in a later post. A few weeks ago when I promised a post about cheese-making and did not deliver (sorry y’all) we had delicious, fluffy ricotta cheese.

We ate it in lasagna soup that I made in the electric pressure cooker (instant pot). Had I not eaten so much of it in that soup I was going to attempt to make cannolis. Oh cannolis. How I love to devour thee. Anyway, I didn’t make the cannolis, but I did eat the ricotta. There is something really satisfying about eating food made from scratch and knowing each ingredient that goes into it.

Mrs Terry would love to someday raise a small herd of Highland cattle and use their milk for her cheese making. Until then our Black Angus and Herefords are for meat not milk so we use store-bought gallons of milk. After that she adds her special secret ingredients and puts them in her cheese press, waxes them, then they head for the cheese refrigerator. Then voila! Delicious cheeses. She makes ricotta cheese, cheddar, mozzarella, colby, halloumi, parmesan, cottage cheese, feta and yogurt. I know that’s not a cheese, but it’s also amazing and my babies love it. It definitely needs some mentioning.

Oh yeah. Did I say it is so much cheaper than buying store bought cheese? It is. So we feel frugal and get a ton of cheese and everybody wins. She has cheesemaking books and you can find tons of recipes online from thousands of cheese-makers and cheesemaking suppliers. Have fun playing with your cheese and I’ll have fun eating it!