That was a lot easier than expected. Yoghurt cheese, which is like a very soft cream cheese is one part yoghurt and one part patience. The result is a lovely smooth, creamy cheese that’s great for spreading on crackers and, apparently, making into a cheesecake.

After hanging our homemade yoghurt in a muslin jelly strainer overnight, we headed into the outhouse this morning to find that it had separated very well into whey, which had drained off into a jug below the bag and is ideal for making bread…

Whey, collected in a jug

…and the all-important curd, which is effectively our cheese, sitting at the bottom of the bag…

Curds in a muslin jelly bag

Turning it out, we had about a tennis ball-sized piece of soft cheese, which must have taken around three quarters of a pint’s-worth of yoghurt to make. That’s not bad going when you consider that a proper hard cheese would take around a gallon of milk to make a pound.

After slicing it in two, we mixed one half with a little salt and left the other half as it was. Both were nice – very creamy and smooth – but the salted half just had the edge. It’s in the fridge now, but when this batch has gone, we’ll definitely make some more, and perhaps flavour the next batch with pepper, onion or chives.

Yoghurt cheese

Related posts:

1. We try cheese
2. Making cheese, day two
3. The cheese is out of the press!