Cheese can be made from almost any type of milk, including goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, skimmed milk, powdered dry milk, etc. Even though cheese is available in almost any store, you can make your cheese at home. You can produce cheese from milk due to the activity of rennet and some special diary bacteria. They work on the proteins in milk, making it coalesce into a gel-like form, being the beginning of cheese. 

How to Make Cheese at Home

Here are some common kinds of cheese that you can try to make at home.

1. Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups of 2% milk or whole milk
• ¼ cup of white vinegar
• Salt

Directions:

• Bring the milk almost to boil in a large saucepan.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as you notice bubbles forming.
• Stir the white vinegar and salt immediately.
• Let the mixture cool down to room temperature for about one hour.
• You will notice that the milk will start to curdle immediately.
• Pour the curdled milk into a strainer so the curds can get separated from the whey. Then you will get the cottage cheese.

2. Ricotta Cheese

How to make cheese at home? Try the following steps to make Ricotta cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of milk
• 2 tbsp. of heavy cream
• 1 tsp. of citric acid dissolved in ½ cup of cool water
• Salt

Directions:

• Stir the dissolved citric acid. Add the dissolved citric acid into the milk.
• Heat the milk slowly by stirring it frequently in temperature about 195-205 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Let the milk set for about 1 hour. Don’t stir it in the meantime.
• Line a colander with cheesecloth.
• Pour the curds and whey into the colander in order to drain it for about 30 minutes.
• Place the curds in a bowl. Add heavy cream. Salt it based on your taste.
• Refrigerate and consume it within a week.

3. Mozzarella

How to make cheese at home? Learn how to make Mozzarella cheese. 

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of whole milk
• 2 tsp. of citric acid powder
• 2 tsp. of kosher salt
• 1 tsp. of calcium chloride diluted into ¼ cool water
• ⅛ tsp. of liquid rennet diluted into ¼ cool water
• ½ tsp. of lipase powder

Directions:

• Add citric acid and lipase powder into the milk.
• Heat the milk gradually up to 88 degrees Celsius. Stir the milk gently.
• Once the temperature of 88 degrees Celsius is reached, add the diluted calcium chloride. Stir it well.
• Add diluted rennet and stir it gently while heating the milk up to 104 degrees Celsius.
• Once the temperature of 104 degrees Celsius is reached, remove the milk from heat.
• Remove the curds that have started to form with a strainer.
• The curds should be placed in the microwave and be heated for about 1 minute.
• Remove the curds. Drain the whey.
• Salt the cheese and put it back in the microwave and heat it for another 1 minute.
• Repeat this process a couple of times until the desired results are achieved.
• Remove the cheese from the microwave and salt it again based on your taste.
• Shape your cheese into a ball and let it cool down.
• The Mozzarella cheese should become smooth and shiny.
• Drop the cheese balls into a salt water solution for about 10 minutes so that the cheese can remain its shape.
• Wrap the Mozzarella cheese in a plastic wrap; store and consume it within two weeks.

4. Feta Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of milk
• 1 tbsp. of yogurt
• ½ rennet tablet diluted into ¼ cup of cool water or ½ tsp. of liquid rennet
• ⅛ tsp. of calcium chloride diluted into ¼ cup of cool water
• 1 packed feta cheese starter culture
• 1 packed mesophilic starter culture

Directions:

• Warm the milk to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Add the calcium chloride into the milk while it gets heated.
• Add the cultures in the milk and stir it thoroughly.
• Let the milk sit in temperature room for about 1 hour.
• Add the rennet into the milk, by moving the spoon up and down and not by stirring it.
• Cover the pot and let the milk mixture sit for one night.
• The next day check if the milk has gelled.
• With the help of a knife, cut the curd into ½ inch cubes.
• If there are any curds left, stir them gently for about 20 minutes.
• Place a cheese cloth in a colander. Pour the curds into the colander and drain off the whey.
• Tie the cheese cloth in knots and hang it over a bowl.
• Let the curd drain for about 4 hours.
• Make brine solution using ⅓ cup of non-iodized salt and ½ gallon of water for a better taste and conservation.

5. Goat Milk Soft Cheese

How to make cheese at home? Here is the recipe of how to make goat milk soft cheese by yourself. 

Ingredients:

• ½ gallon of whole goat milk
• 1 drop of liquid rennet diluted in 5 tbsp. of cool water
• 1 ounce of prepared starter

Directions:

• Warm the goat milk up to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Add the prepared starter into the milk and stir it well.
• Add the liquid rennet. Make sure to do up and down motions for a couple of minutes, and not stir it.
• Let the milk sit in room temperature for about 12 to 18 hours.
• Collect the curds from the goat cheese molds.
• Drain the cheese for about 2 days.
• Unmold the cheese. Add salt based on your taste.
• Wrap the cheese with cheese paper and store it in a cold storage for up to 2 weeks.