The Harried Leisure Class

www.leeners.com

I haven't made cheese yet, but I know someone who does it all the time and he recommends them. I have done a fair amount of winemaking. It's like making bread: you just need the patience to accept that yeast works in its own timescale. Other than that, there's nothing particularly difficult about it.

Now that I have a source of raw milk (it helps to live out in the sticks, surrounded by small farms), I plan to get started cheesemaking soon.

First you need a source of raw milk. Then it's really simple. Simply leave your milk out in a wide-mouth jar for a few days until it becomes separated. Then drain the liquid (whey) by pouring through a cheesecloth (gauze works fine). Tie the cheesecloth around a wooden spoon and hang over a container. The solid part is cream cheese. The whey is also useful for cooking (can be a water substitute in almost any recipe) or can be refined into a whey cheese (such as ricotta) by boiling the whey.