I've done this before, starting with fresh (store-bought) milk, and adding a buttermilk culture. Once the batch is well curdled, you just pour it into a colander lined with butter muslin (or triple layers of cheese cloth), and hang it over the sink, to allow the whey to drip out. In a few hours, you have a soft, spreadable cheese. Salt and season as desired. You can do the same thing with ready-made yogurt.
It's been at least a few years since I've done this. Today, at the grocery, I purchased a half-gallon of cultured buttermilk. It's already buttermilk, so what could go wrong? I set the colander in the sink, poured the thick buttermilk into the butter muslin, then set about knotting the 4 corners of the cloth, to suspend it.
Within less than a minutes, all but about a teaspoon of the buttermilk had gone down the drain.
What had not occurred to me was that when I make it from scratch, I control the degree of curd formation. At the buttermilk-industrial-complex, they carefully allow their product to thicken to a specific viscosity, then homogenize and pasteurize it. There never were any curds. Just thick liquid.
My shoulders slumped. I wasn't angry. I just felt stupid.
Bob
It's been at least a few years since I've done this. Today, at the grocery, I purchased a half-gallon of cultured buttermilk. It's already buttermilk, so what could go wrong? I set the colander in the sink, poured the thick buttermilk into the butter muslin, then set about knotting the 4 corners of the cloth, to suspend it.
Within less than a minutes, all but about a teaspoon of the buttermilk had gone down the drain.
What had not occurred to me was that when I make it from scratch, I control the degree of curd formation. At the buttermilk-industrial-complex, they carefully allow their product to thicken to a specific viscosity, then homogenize and pasteurize it. There never were any curds. Just thick liquid.
My shoulders slumped. I wasn't angry. I just felt stupid.
Bob