There are many ways to make cheese. Here are two ways. If you enjoy it, look up homemade cheese on the Internet and there are hundreds of ways to make it.
Cheese can be made from raw milk or pasteurized milk from the store do not use ultra-pasteurized milk (this has been super-heated and will not make cheese.)
You can use skim to whole milk. More fat in the milk creates a creamier tasting cheese. You do not need the cream for the cheese to form.
TOOLS: Use only stainless steel pans and a good thermometer (digital)
Mozzarella
1 gallon milk
¾ cup cool water
1 ¼ tsp citric acid
(get this on line or Kathy's herb shop)
½ tablet rennet
(Junket available at Terrel’s in Mt. Pleasant above the pudding)
Salt about 1 tsp
In ¼ cup of the water dissolve rennet and set aside
In the remaining cup dissolve citric acid
Pour acid mixture into bottom of you pan then add the milk and stir vigorously. Heat the milk to 90 degrees. Take it off the burner and stir in rennet. Cover the pot and let it sit 1-2 hours until the whey looks clear and a clean break is achieved. Now that the curd has formed cut the curd into 1-2 inch pieces and put back on the stove and heat to 105 degrees while gently stirring with a spoon or your hands. When it reaches 105 take it off the stove and let it sit 2-5 min. The curds should sink. Pour off whey (you can save this for bread) and put the curds into a microwave safe bowl. Press a little of the whey out then microwave for 1 min. Drain more of the whey and fold the cheese a few times to mix it. Microwave for another 30 sec. or until the temp of the cheese is 135 - then stretch it and add salt. Keep kneading and stretching it until the cheese is shiny (a pair of gloves makes this easier because the cheese is hot). The more you work it the firmer it will be. Shape it into balls or any other desired shape.
Cheddar
2 gallons milk
cheddar culture (must buy online)
yellow cheese color (opt. must buy online)
1 tablet Junket rennet
1-2 Tbs salt
cheese cloth
cheese press
Put culture in milk the night before and let sit out all night. Dissolve rennet in ¼ cup cool water. Heat milk to 84 and add color (opt); stir in rennet mixture. Let it sit until clean break forms about 45 min to 3 hours. I like to let it set 3 hours then cut the curd into 1-2 inch squares; heat and mix gently with hands to between 95-96 degrees. This will make a soft moist cheese. Keep the curd at this temp and continue to mix until the curd stiffens to a soft scrambled egg texture. Take off heat and let it sit 5 min. curd will sink; pour off the whey. Add salt quickly and mix it into the curds then quickly put it in the cheese press and press for 4-6 hours. Then I take it out and rub the rind with salt and wrap it in a paper towel and put it in the fridge overnight. Then take off the damp paper towel and put it in a plastic bag.
Technically you are supposed to let cheddar age at least 1 month but mine never lasts more than about a week. The flavor does however mature and ripen the older it is I can tell a difference even after 1 week. If you plan to age it be very careful about not getting any bacteria in your cheese while you are making it. It will make it spoil. You can also wax it to store it at 55 degrees or cooler to age it. If you eat it fresh it doesn't have time to grow.
Cheese Press
Kefir
Kefir is a supercharged yogurt it has more kinds of probiotics for digestion and people have claimed all types of health benefits from drinking it. Look it up on line if you want to know.
It tastes like a strong plain yogurt. The cool thing about this is when you get a kefir grain or mother you have an endless supply of kefir.
Kefir eats milk, pasteurized or raw, any kind of milk, sheep, goat, horse, cow, yak. It will grow in milk so you can divide it and share.
Kefir will die if it comes in contact with metal and some sources say plastic is not good either.
Place washed kefir grains into glass or ceramic container then add milk cover with a cloth and let sit on your cupboard or in your oven that is turned off around 24 hours until the mixture looks bonded or like a thickened buttermilk. It will mature best in 70-80 degrees Then take out the kefir and put in a glass cup. Wash the kefir WITH NON-CLORINATED WATER and start over or place in fridge covered in water up to 2 weeks if you let it sit too long you may have a few batches not turn out until the kefir gets charged up again.
Kefir cheese. I love to hang my thickened kefir in a cheese cloth bag and let all the liquid drain off then add salt it taste just like sour cream or cream cheese. I like to add dill and garlic too for chip dip or sandwich spread YUM!!!
You can cook with it like yogurt too but it will make stuff rise more so add a little extra flour.
Evaporative Cooler
I have found two ways to do this. The concept is that when water evaporates it cools the water. This is how your swamp cooler works.
POT IN A POT
This simple cooler is being used in countries where electricity is not available and is currently improving the quality of food and life in these places.
Two earthenware unglazed pots or terracotta one able to fit inside of the other
Place the smaller one inside and fill the gap between with sand. Saturate the sand with water and cover the inside pot with a damp cloth and you are finished!!!!
You must keep the sand wet in order for the evaporative properties to continue to work.
The temperature drop will be from 25-35 degrees below the air temperature surrounding the pots. This is not enough for things like meat or mayonnaise but it will allow produce to last much longer.
The water contained in the sand between the two pots evaporates towards the outer surface of the larger pot where the drier outside air is circulating. By virtue of the laws of thermodynamics, the evaporation process automatically causes a drop in temperature of several degrees, cooling the inner container, destroying harmful microorganisms and preserving the perishable foods inside.
Abba’s first trials proved successful.
Eggplants, for example, stayed fresh for 27 days instead of three, and tomatoes and peppers lasted for three weeks or more. African spinach, which usually spoils after a day, remained edible after 12 days in the Pot-in-Pot storage.
ICE CHEST
The chest is filled with water and place outdoors where it will be completely shaded throughout the day. The chest is open to the night time sky (not under a tree or shade structure.) The lid of the chest is left open at night and closed during the day. Food to be kept cool is placed in jars with water tight lids and the jars are placed in the water filled ice chest.
Tip. Use rain water if you can for this one and you won't get water deposits in the cooler.
EGG STORAGE
I'll spare you the story and just tell you the findings. This is best way I have found to store the eggs.
Use fresh eggs - the fresher the better.
Do not wash them – therefore if the egg is too messy to store wash it and eat it fresh don't try to store it.
Only use eggs that don't have shell blemishes or lumps and bumps (bacteria enters in these spots.)
Coat the egg with Vaseline or shortening (optional)
Submerge eggs in a bucket or pot that has a solution of pickling lime (in the canning section of the market) salt and water. The liquid is 16 parts water, 2 parts lime, 1 part salt. Boil the water then add the lime and salt while hot. Let cool then add eggs.
1 gallon of solution is enough to cover 4 dozen eggs.
The eggs must remain submerged so you can get a plastic lid and weight it with a brick or other weight.
Keep the bucket in a cool place but don't allow to freeze. Basement or storage room is cool enough 60 degrees or below
Eggs stored this way will last 8-12 months… just right to get through the winter. The whites will become more runny as the egg gets older so you won't be able to make meringue. The wall of yolks will also soften but they are still good.
WELL BUCKET
In the event of a disaster the only source of clean water may be from that well that supplies your house. Remember in the event of a Nuclear attack the surface water is not safe to drink for quite a while.
SUPPLIES: 1 ¼' PVC pipe about 4-5 feet long.
Marble
spacer
reducer
long wire ore string or baling twine enough to lower the bucket to the water at the bottom of your well.
1 bolt to drill into the top to tie the string to.
In an emergency where the possibility of power returning may be weeks or months you may want to consider learning how to pull your pump then you can use a well bucket 4-6 inches in diameter to draw up a lot more water. For the bottom valve on these use a new toilet stopper between the spacer and reducer.
I talked to Ralph Brotherson about this and he said he thought it would work. Try it out!!
To see a video of this being demonstrated go to simplylivingsmart.com you must create a log in name and password but it is in the free section of the online videos under emergency then water.
