As I watch the continuing saga of the Canadian truckers in Ottawa, I wonder whether anything similar will actually be repeated here. I read of some organizing of such a convoy from California to DC, but I haven’t seen much lately. Maybe the Americans are waiting to see how it all plays out before taking action themselves. If it does happen, supply chain disruptions could become worse. If it doesn’t, they will probably still become worse anyway.
Long before the Canadian convoy began, we were experiencing plenty of shortages. Deli items have been at the top of the list, and so I’ve paid careful attention as I shop that aisle of the store. The holes in the deli section make it easier to see what food is there, and easier to see what is in shorter supply. And here at Smith’s in my little town, the queso fresco supply is lately quite thin. It’s not something I buy all the time because it doesn’t have a great shelf life, but we like it once in a while. As I had run across recipes for it every now and then, I decided it was something to try out at home.
It was a good call. Family reviews all range from “as good as store-bought” to “better than store-bought.” So if you like queso fresco, give it a try. Most recipes around the ‘net call for starting with a gallon of milk. That will produce about a pound of cheese. However, queso fresco in stores comes in 10-ounce packages for a reason—people generally don’t need a whole pound of queso fresco. So I cut the recipe down to a more reasonable size. But if you need more, don’t worry about doubling it, since that’s how the recipes were originally written.
Queso Fresco
2 quarts whole milk
½ rennet tablet*
1 tablespoon water
Salt to taste, start with about ½ teaspoon
In a small
bowl, dissolve the ½ rennet tablet in 1 tablespoon water. This takes several minutes, so be sure to
start this before heating the milk.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, gradually heat the milk to about 110-112°F. (If you don’t have a candy thermometer available, test the temperature by dropping a drop of milk into your hand. If you can barely feel the heat, the milk is probably ready.)
When the milk reaches 110-112°F, remove from heat and stir the rennet water in thoroughly, for about 5-10 seconds. Cover and let the mixture rest for about an hour.
After about an hour, curds should form. The curds are the semi-solid white globs that separate from the yellowish whey liquid. (If they haven’t formed, let the mixture set for another hour. If they still haven’t formed, as happened to me once, gradually heat the mixture up to 110-115°F. Watch carefully and remove from heat as soon as they form.) Sometimes the curds form a rather solid mass. If this is the case, with the curds and whey still in the pan, use a knife to cut the curds into cubes.
Line a colander with cheesecloth (or a clean flour sack dishcloth, or even a clean, discarded t-shirt) and suspend the colander over a large bowl to collect the whey. Spoon or gently pour the curds and whey into the cheesecloth.
With the curds in the middle, gather the four corners of the cheesecloth into a bag. Squeeze the bag to drain as much of the whey as possible.
Open the bag and add the salt to taste, starting with about ½ teaspoon, mixing it in with your fingers. Taste, and add more salt if desired.
Optional. At this point you may add herbs, minced jalapeño pepper or sweet red pepper to give the cheese a different flavor.
At this point, if your cheese is still on the wet side, place it back in the cheesecloth and let it hang and drain for about an hour. Then unwrap and refrigerate.
If you want to make your cheese look just like store-bought, instead of hanging in cheesecloth, you can place them in a round mold. (Make a mold with a 28-29 oz tin can. Remove both ends, saving one to place on top of the cheese to help squeeze the remaining whey out. Place the can on the colander, fill with cheese, and then put the reserved end on top. Place a smaller can on top of the lid to press down on the cheese and squeeze the whey out.)
This recipe will yield about 8 ounces of queso fresco. That means that you will also have about 24 ounces of whey. Don’t throw it out! There are lots of uses for it. But that’s a topic for another day. ;)
Notes. Truly authentic queso fresco is made with raw milk. While commercial manufacturers can safely produce cheese from raw, unpasteurized milk, it’s a lot harder to do so safely at home. Eating cheese made from unpasteurized milk runs the risk of developing food poisoning, especially listeria. And this is why Hispanic women, who are far more likely to consume homemade queso fresco prepared with raw milk, are 24 times more likely to contract a listeria infection.
While the best results will be obtained using milk fresh from a local creamery, for many people the “local” creamery is hundreds of miles away. I made this using regular whole milk and it works great.
*Rennet tablets are sold in some grocery stores. In my experience, they’re always on the top shelf. Take a look at Junket rennet tablets on Amazon so you know what exactly you are looking for. They’ll be very close to the Jell-O. My (large) Smith’s doesn’t carry the rennet tablets, but the small independent grocery store does. You might need to check a few places if you don’t want to pay Amazon prices.
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