How to Make Organic Herbed Cheese at Home

Here's an easy way to make your own organic herbed cheese at home. This is a simple soft white cheese you can make with ingredients and tools you probably already have in your kitchen right now. With it's mild and sweet flavor, this cheese is great as a spread for crackers, crumbling on salads or tacos, or as an elegant cheese ball for a party appetizer.

You will need a few ingredients and implements to make your cheese perfectly. Whole organic milk is preferred for a sweeter flavored cheese. Fresh milk is ideal if you live near a dairy and can attain it, but as that is not likely for the average person, any organic brand will do fine. Salt, distilled white vinegar, and some fresh herbs of your choice chopped finely are the only other ingredients you need to mke your herbed cheese. You can experiment with different combinations of herbs. Oregano, thyme, majoram, basil, and rosemary all work well.

You will also need a couple of large pieces of cheesecloth, a colander for draining, and a candy thermometer to accurately guage temperatures while heating the organic milk. Accurate temperature is vital in making cheese, so make sure you have a good thermometer.

To make a one pound ball of cheese, you will need 10 cups of whole organic milk. Heat the milk slowly in a large sauce pan over low heat, until your thermometer reads 180 degrees. While heating, stir the milk often with a wire wisk. When it reaches 180 degrees, keep it at that temperature for ten minutes. After the ten minutes, turn off the heat. Now, sprinkle the milk with 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, stirring the vinegar in gently, and then let the milk mixture sit for about a minute.

At this point, the milk will start to separate, with the curd sinking to the bottom of the pan, and a cloudy liquid, called whey, rising to the top. If the milk isn't separating, you will want to add small amounts of vinegar at a time until it does.

Next, line your colander with two large sections of cheesecloth, one piece on top of the other, going in opposite directions. The cheesecloth should be long enough to drape over the edges of the colander. Now, pour the curds and whey onto the cheesecloth. You can do this in the sink, or over a large bowl if you are saving the whey for another recipe. Gently press out some of the liquid from the curds with your fingers, and sprinkle on a half teaspoon of salt, and two and a half tablespoons of your chosen herbs onto the curds.

Gather up the ends of the cheescloth, and twist it around into a bag around the curds. Sqeeze out as much of the liquid as you can, making the curd into as tight a ball as possible. Tie the top of the cloth with a rubber band or string, and hang it in a warm area, where there aren't any drafts. 72 degrees is ideal for hanging your cheese. Let it hang for two hours, leaving a bowl or a large towel underneath to catch any drips.

For crumbly cheese, or cheese you want to make into a spread or cheese ball, you can take the cheese out of the cloth at this point, and refridgerate in plastic wrap. For firmer cheese for cubing or slicing, you will want to leave it in the cheese cloth for the first hour or so of refridgeration, befor transfering to plastic wrap.

And that's it. Your cheese will stay good in the fridge for up to a week, but it is best to use it as soon as you can, within a couple of days if possible. If you've never made your own cheese before, you will find that you may need to experiment , in smaller batches, for the first few tries before you perfect your method and make incredible cheese.