Supposedly you can make good cheese with storebought milk, but I've never tried it. You need to add calcium chloride to it to get the curd to set properly, and of course you need rennet (NOT THE TABLETS) to set the curd. If you can get liquid rennet and calcium chloride (try New England Cheesemaking online), you could try it. What you'd do is take a gallon or two of milk, put it in a large pot, add the calcium chloride, then put the pot in a sink full of hot water until it reaches about 75 to 80 degrees. Then you have to "ripen it" which means adding some buttermilk or yogurt or both (to increase the acidity), stir well, and let it sit for an hour. Then add the liquid rennet (1/2 teaspoon per gallon of mik), stir well, and let sit for 15 to 20 minutes, until it sets into one big curd. At that point, you can either break it up into smaller curds with your hands, or use a knife to cut the curds (don't scratch your pot, scratches will foster bacteria growth later), while increasing the heat to around 90 degrees with changes of hot water in the sink. When the curds are starting to firm up a bit and aren't so squishy anymore, dump it all into a sieve-type colander (and if you want to make real ricotta, set that colander over a large stock pot to save the whey), and let the curds drain. They'll knit together again, but when they've stopped dripping, tip the curd mass out into a large bowl, break it up into smaller pieces with your hands, then salt it at a rate of 1 tablespoon of salt per each gallon of milk you started with. Work the salt into the curds with your hands, and there you go. Cheese curds. They're better if you let them sit covered in the fridge for a day or so, to let them absorb the salt, and then you can drain the whey off - there'll be a bit more that seeps out - and put them in a bowl lined with paper towels or something to keep them "dry."
That's how I make hard cheese, except once I've broken the curd mass up and salted it, I put it in my cheese press and make a block out of it.
That's how I make hard cheese, except once I've broken the curd mass up and salted it, I put it in my cheese press and make a block out of it.
