Queso Fresco
 

I just realized that almost all of my recipes call for this, and yet I haven't posted how it's made! Queso Fresco is a staple of Latin American and some Spanish cooking, and it's something you can make yourself in the kitchen.

Kitchen gack that you will need

A large stainless steel stockpot
A collander
A weight

Ingredients

1 gallon whole milk
1 pint high-fat content cream (35% is good)
enough white vinegar to make it curdle (which is really not a lot)
salt, lots of salt

Ok, I have all that stuff. What do I do next?

Mix the milk and cream in the stockpot and scald it without boiling. Reduce the heat and add the vinegar, stirring constantly, and only adding as much vinegar as is necessary to clabber the milk (form curds). Keep stirring until the fluid in the mixture becomes clearish.

Remove the curds from the pot, strain them, and place them into a bowl. Salt the ever living daylights out of them - test a curd or two to see if you've got enough salt; if you don't, it won't taste too great. Once this is done, pack them into the collander, and place the weight on top to continue the draining process. The Queso Fresco is ready when no more water is coming out of it.

QF keeps for a couple of days in the fridge before it sours. You get about a pound of cheese out of a gallon of milk. Once you're confident with the process you can start flavouring the cheese - you can add cumin seeds or peppercorns at the salting stage, or add powdered herbs to the milk after it's scalded but before clabbering.

Re: Queso Fresco
 

My favorite. Whatever you do under no circumstance be tempted to skip a step and add salt to the milk before it's curdled.........guess how I know.

Re: Queso Fresco
 

Thanks Beth

Re: Queso Fresco
 

I have eaten tons of quesillo but never made it.

Thanks

aaron

Re: Queso Fresco
 

Beth i use Rent for us here in the US its available at Walmart takes the place of Vinegar doesn't add the acid flavor to the Queso also here in the Desert South west they sell Queso fresco in almost every grocery store

Re: Queso Fresco
 

Pauly, the whole point of QF is that it's not a Rennet cheese - you lose the unique quality of the slightly acid flavour that the vinegar gives the cheese if you clabber with another agent. I've started to get fancy with my Queso Fresco - I now use balsamic vinegar and clove peppercorns, and I'm getting gourmet results.

If you like to use Rennet, you can of course make Mozzarella, with the addition of 2 tbsp of live-culture yogurt after the milk is scalded, and a second process of curd stretchin under hot water.