So, I decided to give this “midra cheese” thing a shot the other day. Heard the name somewhere, sounded interesting, figured why not try making some myself. Didn’t seem too complicated from what I gathered, mostly just messing with milk.
Getting Started
First thing, I needed the basics. Didn’t go for anything fancy. Just grabbed a carton of whole milk from the fridge – the regular stuff, nothing special. Then I needed something to make it curdle, right? Found some white vinegar in the cupboard. Salt, obviously. That was pretty much it for ingredients.
For tools, just kitchen regulars:
- A decent sized pot.
- A wooden spoon for stirring.
- A colander.
- Some cheesecloth. Found an old clean piece, hoped it would do the job.
- A bowl to catch the whey, and another for the finished cheese.
The Actual Making Part
Alright, so I poured maybe half the carton of milk into the pot. Put it on the stove over medium heat. The idea wasn’t to boil it crazy, just get it hot. Steaming a bit, but no bubbles boiling up. Stirred it now and then so it wouldn’t stick to the bottom. Took maybe ten minutes?
Once it felt hot enough – I just dipped a clean finger in quick, don’t judge – I turned the heat way down. Then, I started adding the white vinegar. Didn’t just dump it in. Added a tablespoon, stirred gently. Waited a second. Added another. Kept doing that slowly. You could see it start to change almost right away. Little white bits started separating from the watery liquid. That’s the curds splitting from the whey, apparently. Looked kinda weird, honestly. Like watery scrambled eggs.
I let it sit off the heat for maybe 10 more minutes after adding maybe 3-4 tablespoons of vinegar total. Just let it finish doing its separating thing.
Straining and Finishing
Next up was getting the solid bits out. I lined the colander with the cheesecloth and put it over a big bowl. Carefully poured the whole pot of curds and whey into the cloth. The yellowish, watery whey drained right through into the bowl below. What was left in the cloth was the lumpy white stuff – the curds.
I let it drain for a while, then gathered up the corners of the cheesecloth and gave it a gentle squeeze to get more whey out. Didn’t squeeze too hard, didn’t want it totally dry.
Then I scooped the stuff from the cheesecloth into a clean bowl. It looked like ricotta, sort of. Crumbly. Added a pinch of salt, maybe half a teaspoon, and mixed it in gently with the spoon. Tasted a tiny bit. Not bad. A bit bland maybe, but definitely cheesy.
The Result
So, what did I end up with? A small bowl of soft, white, slightly tangy cheese. Nothing like the hard block cheese you buy, more like a fresh farmer’s cheese. I spread some on a cracker later. It was decent. Fresh. Took maybe 45 minutes start to finish, not counting the waiting bits.
It wasn’t world-changing, but it was kinda cool to see milk turn into cheese right there on my stove using just vinegar. Might try it again, maybe add some herbs like dill or chives next time. Pretty simple process, really. Just heat, curdle, strain, salt. That’s my midra cheese experiment.
