Cheese Making Made Easy: Fromage Blanc

The ancient art of cheese making can seem overwhelmingly complicated at first glance. With some varieties of cheeses requiring specialized equipment and long periods of aging, cheese making often isn't something the average cook considers bothering with. However, not all cheeses are as complicated as many people believe. Fromage blanc ("white cheese" in French) is one such cheese that can be made in an hour or two from just a few simple ingredients. It's a soft, mild, and delicious cheese that you can brag about making yourself!

Part 1: Ingredients and materials

Fromage blanc requires just four simple ingredients:

A) 1 quart of whole milk

B) 1 cup of active-culture buttermilk (anything that says something like "cultured buttermilk" on the label should be fine)

C) 2 teaspoons of white vinegar

D) 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of salt to taste


The materials you need aren't too complicated either:

* Heavy saucepan

* Wooden spoon

* Candy thermometer (recommended, but not 100% necessary)

* Colander

* A pot the colander can sit over

* Cheesecloth and a bit of string

* A mold to press the cheese curds into (a small bowl works fine)


The only material most people may not already have lying around their homes is the cheesecloth.

Cheesecloth can be found in fabric stores and most stores that carry arts and crafts supplies. Some grocery stores carry it with their cooking gadgets, and I'm told that cheesecloth can also be found in hardware stores, although I've never looked for it there. I found this pack of cheesecloth at the local Walmart near the sewing supplies. I think it was about $4.00 for a package that's big enough to get at least a few batches of fromage blanc out of!

Part 2: Making the Cheese!

The first step is to pour your milk into the heavy saucepan and begin heating it over low heat. Make sure you stir the milk regularly to keep it from burning on the bottom. If you have a candy thermometer (I don't, but figured a digital meat thermometer was good enough), use it to keep an eye on the temperature. You'll need to heat the milk to about 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is easily the most tedious part of the process since it will take a long time to get to 175 degrees over low heat. Try to resist the temptation to turn up the heat though because you'll get the best results with slow, even heating.

You don't have to hit exactly 175 degrees, but the closer you are the better results you'll have. If you don't have a thermometer, you'll know the milk it about ready when it gets bubbly and frothy on the surface, as seen in the above picture.

When you (finally) hit the 175 degree mark, turn off the heat and pour in the buttermilk and vinegar and stir gently. Within a few seconds, the milk should begin to curdle (if it doesn't, add another teaspoon or so of vinegar).

Keep stirring gently until the milk stops curdling. Then go ahead and let the pan sit on the warm burner for ten minutes.

While the curdled milk is sitting, you can get the cheesecloth ready. Place the colander over a pot and cut off a couple arms' length of cheesecloth. Open it up and fold it back over itself a few times to line the colander with a few layers. Tuck the edges of the cheesecloth between the colander and the pan in a couple of places to keep the cloth from slipping.

Once the ten minutes are up, ladle the curds onto the cheesecloth.

Let the curds sit in the colander and drain for about five minutes.

Next, bundle the curds up in the cheesecloth and tie the bundle securely with the string.

Remove the colander and tie the bundle onto your wooden spoon. Then hang the bundle over the pan for another thirty minutes. This will continue draining the cheese and compress the curds into a solid ball of cheesy goodness.

After you've had thirty minutes to admire your hanging bundle of awesome homemade cheese, unwrap the cheesecloth and dump your cheese into whatever container you'd like to use as a mold.

Just plain cheese is kind of bland, so now you can add the salt and mix it into the cheese. If you're feeling creative, you can try mixing in some fresh chopped herbs, seasonings, or whatever else you might want into your cheese too.

One the salt has been thoroughly distributed into the curds, it's time to press the curds into the mold. I found that a good way to do this was to use the cheesecloth to apply firm, even pressure across the surface until the curds were packed tightly into the bottom of the mold.

Congratulations! You've just made your very own fromage blanc! It's totally fine to eat it right now if you want to. However, if you let it sit in the fridge overnight, the cultures in the cheese will ripen it a bit and give it a more complex favor. Wrap your cheese or place it in an airtight container and chill it until you're ready to use it.

And the last step: Enjoy your amazing cheese! Fromage blanc makes a great appetizer spread on crackers or bread. You can substitute it for soft cheeses like ricotta in your favorite recipes. In France, fromage blanc is sometimes sweetened and served with fruit as a dessert. Or you could just eat it right out of the mold (not that I'd know anything about that).