SQL Saturday happened.
Sad: I have to talk about it in the past tense now.
$DROP_DATABASE$?
My latest batch of yogurt turned out really thick, sweet, and creamy. I turned this batch over in the middle of straining, so more whey was strained out. yum
No whey.
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Yes whey. 
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Weāve started straining (1 day) and pressing (2 days) a tub of yogurt and adding a pinch of salt to make our own cream cheese.
Itās awesome. Actually a dollar cheaper than the cream cheese we used to buy.
So, from homemade yogurt that sounds like two days of draining and one day of pressing.
You add the salt right before you press I assume?
Yeah. If making your own yogurt first, that usually takes a day. Then, a day of draining, then a pinch of kosher salt, then 2 days of pressing in the fridge. Done. Like anything else, it just takes a little time to save money.
And by pressing you use a bag of water and a plate in your container or something? How heavy do you go?
Man this just sounds like it would taste so good.
I need to make some mozzarella again too.
Okay, here is my method. Iāll start from the yogurt stage.
Get a kitchen cloth. Not a dish towel, a kitchen cloth. These are a step up from cheesecloth and usually have finished edges. They may be called flour sack cloths/towels. I have a lot of these because itās what we use to strain our cocktail bitters. I have dedicated ones for that purpose. They usually come in packs of 3 or 4 and might cost 5 bucks. They wash right out and the weave gets a bit tighter/cotton fibers get a bit looser with each wash making them better.
Put this in the sink and plop a container of yogurt onto it. You can do this over a bowl if you want to. Pull 2 opposite corners together over the yogurt and lay the ends over the top. Get a chopstick or mixing spoon and lay that across the middle so it sticks out. Tie the long ends together over the stick to use as a support. You can tie it pretty tight. You are trying to get as much liquid out of this as you can, eventually. This will happen over time. What youāre trying to do right now is to make a compact bundle around the stick. Suspend this over a tall juice container so that it has room to drain. Check it once in a while to make sure it is still out of the liquid or it wonāt drain. Remove liquid if you need to. I just throw it away. I donāt have a real use for it.
After a day, put the yogurt in a bowl and add a pinch of kosher salt. Mix well. Wash out the cloth you just used in the sink. Use a spatula to get all of the mixture onto this squeezed out towel. Wash the bowl and put the mixture and towel in it with the towel laying open. Use the spatula to push it all out to the edges. Put a piece of cling film over top. Cut out a piece of cardboard or something that is close to the right size to completely cover the inside of the bowl and lay it over the film. This is why I use a straight sided bowl. Put a big can of tomatoes or something on that to weigh it down. Pull the cloth up around and tie it loosely. The cloth will act as a wick to release even more moisture into the circulating air of your refrigerator. Itās wet to begin with, but donāt be surprised that it stays wet for the next 2 days while this sits at the back of your fridge.
So, a 750ml tub of yogurt will reduce to about 250ml of cream cheese using this method. I use Astro Balkan yogurt at 6%. It costs $3.79. If youāre making your own yogurt, it is probably only 3.75% at most and costs a lot less. A tub of Western cream cheese of the reduced size is $4.79.
Is it worth it to save a dollar? I know that both are made with no junky additives, so it is a fair comparison. I really like the taste, and it helps me to plan. If I take the time to make it, I know itās because I want to use it.
Next, cottage cheese ā¦
Got to leave work almost an hour early today because appointments were over and all of my tasks were completed. And yet somehow weāre still up for the month already. Not too shabby.
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My boss pulled me out of my classroom today. He just wanted to tell me what a good job Iām doing and how happy he is with the side projects that Iāve done.
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Making this.
Free to use.
Finished my masterās degree program and will be walking in the commencement ceremony. Next stop: certification!
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Congratulations! That is a fantastic achievement!
Finished my slaveās degree program and will be grovelling on hands and knees in the commencement ceremony. Next stop: domination!
Congrats. Is that why youāve been scarce around here?
A video of Mike Rowe narrating a family get-together in the style of āāThe Deadliest Catchāā resurfaced on one of the Cheezburger sites today. Fun to listen to.
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Thanks guys.
@Rizak, thatās gonna be World Domination, thankyouverymuch. Go big or go home, I say!
@Force10 yeah, thatās pretty much why Iāve been incognito for a while. Working on some certs now that will hopefully get me where I want to be.
Aiming to be more here, causeā¦reasonsā¦
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This amuses me
Like, makes me giggle a little every time I see it.
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