GNOWFGLINS™

With the leftover raw cow’s milk from my friend, I determined to make cheese. I limited myself to the easier “bag cheeses” which are the easiest to make. After all, I am not an experienced cheese maker (though I have made Middle Eastern goat cheese).

Using a book I recently acquired used from a good friend’s bookstore, “Cheesemaking Made Easy” by Ricki & Robert Carroll, the list of possible bag cheeses yielded only one cheese I could make with the cultures I have on hand (rennet or apple cider vinegar).

The winner: Queso Blanco (a Latin American cheese meaning “white cheese”). According to the book, Queso Blanco is a “hard and rubbery cheese with a bland, sweet flavor. It is excellent for cooking, and has the unique property of not melting even if deep-fried. … It browns nicely and takes on the flavor of the food and spices in the recipe.” I would rather have made a lemon cheese or a cream cheese, but lacking the right cultures, they were impossible choices.

Thankfully, I was able to create the Queso Blanco cheese easily, even overcoming the limitations of a broken candy thermometer (do I get another or do I keep making do with this one, whose glass is cracked?). The cheese is indeed mild, rubbery and sweet. It asks (not quite begs) for flavor, or at least salt.

So now that I have it — and by the way, this is one of the few times when my first attempt at something worked — what do I do with it? Do you have any recipes for Queso Blanco?