Learning to make dairy products at home is a very rewarding and fun challenge to take on. Whether you have your own milk source on the farm, buy raw milk from a local farm, or buy milk from the store, you’ll have a good time making your own dairy products!
Several years ago Mr Chiots and I started getting raw milk from a local farm (we actually bought part of a cow and pay the farmer to care for “our” cow, this is how we do it legally). With an abundance of fresh local milk, we decided to start making most of our dairy products at home. We first learned to make butter and yogurt and then moved on to cheese. Not only are we saving money, our homemade products are super healthy and it greatly reduced our need to make trips to the grocery store.
Every week we make about a pound and a half of butter here at Chiot’s Run. We skim the cream from our milk and save it in a half gallon mason jar. When we have enough, we simply shake the jar until it become butter. (for a step-by-step process read this post on my blog). We have a constant supply of fresh raw butter which we enjoy on just about everything (not to mention all the buttermilk for quick breads).
From this butter we make ghee that we are able to use in place of oil. Since we’ve been trying to eat as locally as possible, making ghee allows us to purchase less oil. We still buy olive oil from California, but not as much as we used to. (for step-by-step process on how to make ghee read this post on my blog)
I also like to make cheese. I don’t make a ton of aged cheese yet, I’m still getting the hang of that, but quick cheeses are fun and easy. The cheese pictured above is pressed lemon cheese. I curdled the milk with some lemon juice, salted the curds and pressed them in my tin can cheese press. It was super delicious and a great way to use up milk that had soured a bit (which we don’t like to drink, but it makes a tasty cheese). Whenever we are making pizza, I make 30-min mozzarella and when I’m making lasagna I make some fresh ricotta. In the next couple years I’m hoping to try a few more aged cheese so I can quit buying my cheddar, Parmesan & Romano at the store.
Do you make any dairy products at home?
Not Dabbling In Normal 
very cool…. haven’t made butter in many many years!!! i’d love to get into cheese making… it’s getting harder and harder to find raw milk… laws laws 😦
Yes it is, that’s why we bought part of cow, the only way to legally get raw milk in Ohio.
I am in the process of trying to find fresh milk in our area….not easy. We are not big milk drinkers, but I would like to make butter and cheese.I have made yogurt (with store bought milk) and that was great, but still want the fresh milk for that too. I have also drained the yogurt to make a basic soft cheese adding in herbs for flavor – that was nice. And then using the drained whey in the bread that I make. So Fun to learn new things.
I have signed up for a soft cheese class and the following day a hard cheese making class. I am on a wait list for the Feb classes and if it that doesn’t work will definitely be in the April class.
thank you for your posts on the butter and ghee. I look forward to trying that soon. Emily in So. TX
It is difficult to find fresh raw milk. We’re lucky that we got in with a local farm when they first started out. It’s becoming a more popular thing so hopefully it will become easier to find in your local area.
I’ve made the “30 minute” mozarella – it takes more like an hour really. Haven’t gotten very good at it yet, it’s still a bit tough and I think my yield could be higher. Still practicing.
I also make cheese out of my homemade yogurt. My favorite is when I use a 50/50 mix of goat and cow milk for the yogurt. Then I press it into cheese. It is fantastic!
The first couple times I made 30-min mozzarella it wasn’t quite right. They last few times I’ve made it have been perfect. I made long-form mozzarella once. I don’t have a good cheese cutting knife which makes it difficult to make cut curd cheeses.
I’m dying to start making some of our own dairy products…butter, yogurt, cheese…it didn’t even occur to me to use the butter to make ghee! Our problem is that it’s really hard to get raw milk in our area. There’s a local brand that sideskirts the law by labeling its milk “for pet consumption only,” but it costs an arm and a leg, so we haven’t tried it yet. Sigh. I am tempted to buy some organic heavy cream to attempt making our own butter in the meantime. We use a lot of butter and buttermilk!
Funny you should mention dairying…I made queso fresco, ricotta, and butter this morning and my sweetie made yogurt.
Anyone wanting to try homemade cheese should check out the Fias Co. Farm web site. http://fiascofarm.com/ This queso fresco is the first pressed cheese I’ve made, and it’s quite lovely. I like it on pizza instead of mozzarella.
Thanks for the link, I’ll give that cheese a try!
that cheese looks amazing. from time to time i make ricotta, mozarella, paneer and queso fresco. i’ve also made marscapone, creme fresh, sour cream, cream cheese. butter quite often and yogurt weekly. oh, and i tried feta last summer after we came home from turkey and to my delight it was a success! 🙂 i need to do it again soon!
We are fortunate that we have our very own Molly milk cow. I make, weekly, some or all of the following: queso fresco, recipe from Fias Co. Farm web site. http://fiascofarm.com/ listed above, ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, feta, and a farmer’s cheddar – has to age 3-24 mo. in the fridge — VERY hard to wait that long. I just got a penicillium bacteria and will try my hand at a blue. Also yogurt and kefir daily. Marcia in WY
I love it! The butter looks great. I just posted about a yogurt cozy I just made as I just started making yogurt and yogurt cheese- so simple and so good!
Very nice photos. You have a good eye.
[…] to try the home creamery? Jump to Comments Those folks over at Not Dabbling in Normal posted this which discusses making butter and ghee at home. There are also links to the author’s blog, […]
I have a couple of goats which I plan on breeding to milk next year.
I have mastered yogurt and soured products such as creme freiche (sp) but I still cannot figure out mozzarella. I attempted to follow the tutorial on http://www.fiascofarm.com site but it still turned out rubbery and wrong. Hopefully I will figure it out!
We make lots of mozzarella with out goat milk. I use the Quick Mozzarella method from Goats Produce Too! by Mary Jane Toth. We have had a few batches turn out rubbery, but most of the time (when we slow down and follow all the steps) it works great.