Peasant Cheese

Have you ever tried to make cheese? I have taken several courses over the years, and regardless of the effort made, I just cannot make cheese. just not in my skillset 🙂
One thing people may not realise is that I am also a medieval enthusiast, especially 11 and 12 century. So many years ago rather than take yet another cheese making course, I started to look back in history.

During this research, I found a simple recipe and decided to give it a go. It was for a ‘peasant cheese’ or ‘fresh green cheese’, so I decided to give it a go.

Making peasant cheese is very easy. It only takes very little time and is well worth the effort.

Ingredients
milk
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar for every litre of milk (you can substitute for lemon juice if that is what you have)
some salt
olive oil

How to:
Heat the milk on a low heat until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat. Add the apple cider vinegar and stir gently and let sit for 10 minutes. Strain through a muslin cloth, wrap and squeeze out as much whey as possible. Then hang and allow to drain for approx. An hour. When it is finished, unwrap the cheese and mix with a little salt and olive oil until desired flavour and texture is reached. The cheese can also be flavoured with herbs (rosemary, basil, garlic) and serve with fresh fruit from your trees (figs, olives etc.)

It really is that simple, and it is delicious. A favourite in this house when it is made. Just be awarer that it does not keep for more than a week or so, but if you have a source of milk, then you can make a fresh batch regularly.

The additional functions do not stop there. With the leftover whey, we can use it for several different things as well.

First, it can be used to make a whey and honey drink, though it does have an exotic flavour and not everyone may like it.

Second, it can be used in bread, making to make a fortified bread loaf.

Third, the whey can be used as a foliar spray on your fruit trees to help protect them from certain pests and diseases as well as help feed beneficial fungi.

Fourth, feed it to your chickens, ducks, quail to help keep them healthy

and fifth it can be used to make your own Lactic Acid Bacteria (This will be the subject of a future post)

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