Crowdie Cheese

Outlander Kitchen

Have you ever made fresh cheese at home? I love it in all the forms I've tried, like ricotta, paneer, and chevre, but I'd never made it before I tried this recipe. It's really easy! Crowdie cheese only requires some milk and some acid (lemon juice or vinegar), and much less time than you might imagine, and most of that just waiting. In a couple of hours, you could have creamy, spreadable cheese ready to eat.

I thought this ended up too salty, especially for the sweet recipe we planned to use it in, but the recipe I found online (at the author's website) uses half the amount of salt. I would start with that and adjust if necessary, especially if you're making it to top the gingerbread we're making next!

Captions

[00:00]: i've already made a mistake
[00:02]: [Music]
[00:07]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:09]: with heather on this episode i'm going
[00:11]: to be working again from the outlander
[00:14]: kitchen cookbook and i have by theresa
[00:16]: carl sanders and i have my appropriate
[00:19]: shirt on
[00:21]: so
[00:21]: i realized i had a couple of these so i
[00:24]: thought i'd wear it
[00:26]: but today we're going to be making
[00:28]: crowdy cheese so this is a
[00:31]: fresh cheese and i've actually never
[00:33]: ever ever made
[00:35]: cheese at home i know it's pretty easy
[00:37]: to make ricotta and those kinds of
[00:39]: cheeses which this is what it reminds me
[00:41]: of
[00:43]: it's going to be that sort of cheese
[00:46]: and
[00:47]: she says this is good on
[00:51]: oat cake spanx scones
[00:54]: and sandwiches
[00:55]: um it doesn't make a whole lot because
[00:58]: it doesn't start with a huge
[00:60]: amount of milk but
[01:03]: right now i have my milk this is whole
[01:06]: milk
[01:07]: um and it's just regular from the
[01:08]: grocery store milk it's not special raw
[01:10]: whatever it's just regular from the
[01:12]: grocery store whole milk
[01:14]: heating up on the stove at medium heat
[01:16]: now you need to heat this until it foams
[01:20]: and simmers
[01:22]: but she gives you a temperature so i
[01:24]: really like that so i'm using my instant
[01:26]: read probe thermometer
[01:28]: to
[01:29]: check that we're going to
[01:31]: 195 degrees fahrenheit so let me go see
[01:34]: if we're there we were almost there
[01:36]: right before we started filming so
[01:39]: but it does take a while she says about
[01:41]: 20 minutes i think that
[01:43]: yeah we're about 20 minutes now
[01:46]: and there we are
[01:48]: you do need to stir this uh occasionally
[01:52]: to keep it from scorching but we're at
[01:54]: 195 degrees and now you can see the
[01:57]: steam coming up
[01:60]: we're going to add
[02:02]: lemon juice
[02:03]: you can use vinegar as well but we're
[02:06]: going to use this is just freshly
[02:09]: squeezed lemon juice
[02:12]: just drizzle it in
[02:22]: we go and we're supposed to stir this
[02:24]: once and then leave it undisturbed
[02:29]: for five minutes
[02:33]: so we'll see you in about five minutes
[02:37]: okay my timer just went off so it's been
[02:39]: five minutes and we're going to check to
[02:41]: see if the
[02:43]: uh milk has separated into curds and
[02:46]: whey the whey should be sort of
[02:47]: translucent
[02:50]: i feel like it started to but like that
[02:53]: is not at all
[02:55]: as much as i was expecting from this and
[02:58]: the train the the milk part the liquid
[02:60]: part is not translucent
[03:02]: so in this case we're supposed to add a
[03:04]: little bit more of our
[03:07]: um
[03:08]: vinegar or lemon juice and try again
[03:14]: okay
[03:16]: i'm going to stir
[03:17]: once
[03:24]: and set another timer for five minutes
[03:28]: i'm feeling a little bit better about
[03:30]: this now it looks a little bit more like
[03:32]: more has separated
[03:35]: oh yeah so we've got
[03:36]: definitely some clear
[03:39]: liquid
[03:40]: there we go i think this is what we're
[03:42]: looking for here hopefully you can see
[03:44]: that where it's
[03:47]: it looks like
[03:49]: sort of clumps of white in a
[03:53]: clear ish or a transparent liquid so
[03:58]: pretty much done with this i think let
[04:00]: me get something to put it on
[04:02]: so now i'm gonna put this away and we
[04:05]: won't need this until later so i don't
[04:07]: need to write a second
[04:11]: okay
[04:13]: so i have a
[04:17]: let me put this up here
[04:19]: get this over here where you guys
[04:20]: probably can see it up there a little
[04:22]: bit better so i have a taller pot here
[04:26]: with a she says a colander but i've just
[04:28]: got my um
[04:30]: my largest sieve
[04:33]: and four
[04:34]: layers of
[04:37]: uh cheesecloth
[04:39]: in the sieve and we're supposed to
[04:41]: gently ladle all of this into here
[04:45]: so we're going to strain out that way
[04:48]: that is the point here
[04:56]: we're supposed to be very gentle with
[04:58]: this so we don't break up
[05:00]: the curves here
[05:03]: the larger pieces
[05:07]: which is i think probably why we don't
[05:08]: just pour it in here
[05:11]: now that we're down to the very last
[05:13]: bits i'm going to kind of pour it and
[05:15]: scrape
[05:16]: the last little bits
[05:31]: all right
[05:33]: there we go we leave it like this for
[05:35]: about 30 minutes and we can um
[05:38]: sort of
[05:40]: fold the curds over themselves but try
[05:43]: not to press on it
[05:45]: to help encourage
[05:47]: the way to come out of here but we're
[05:49]: going to let it sit like this for 30
[05:50]: minutes so i'm going to set a timer and
[05:52]: we'll see you in about 30 minutes
[05:54]: i've already made a mistake so
[05:56]: apparently i was supposed to let that
[05:58]: sit for 30 minutes before i did that so
[06:00]: i'm gonna sort of combine it all
[06:01]: together
[06:04]: this is trying to fix my mistake
[06:10]: all right
[06:11]: so i'm going to
[06:13]: leave these bits
[06:16]: in here
[06:18]: hopefully i haven't completely messed it
[06:20]: up
[06:25]: and just
[06:28]: do this again
[06:29]: in my other pot i don't know whatever
[06:32]: so i'm going to leave that sit for 30
[06:34]: minutes
[06:36]: and then we strain it
[06:38]: so
[06:40]: great
[06:41]: now we'll see in 30 minutes
[06:44]: now this has been sitting for another 30
[06:46]: minutes and i think that the curds are
[06:49]: uh potentially a little
[06:52]: larger
[06:53]: so i'm just going to once again transfer
[06:55]: this
[06:56]: over here into my
[06:58]: sieve with the cheesecloth and then
[07:00]: we're going to let it sit like that for
[07:02]: another 30 minutes
[07:04]: so we'll see you in about 30 minutes
[07:05]: okay so this has been sitting for
[07:07]: another 30 minutes and i think i didn't
[07:09]: mess it up too badly thankfully um
[07:12]: but now it's time to
[07:15]: hang this
[07:17]: so we're supposed to gather up the
[07:19]: corners
[07:21]: and
[07:23]: well let's actually let's do it this way
[07:25]: we're supposed to tie it around
[07:27]: this so that we can hang it over our
[07:32]: over our
[07:33]: pot
[07:35]: and i want it to not go down too far so
[07:37]: i'm gonna
[07:41]: hang it
[07:43]: pretty tightly to the spoon i think
[07:48]: i've never done this before as i said
[07:51]: so
[07:54]: there we go
[07:56]: and then we basically just take this
[07:58]: away
[07:60]: and
[08:02]: maybe i need to turn it upside down
[08:05]: there we go
[08:08]: and hang it
[08:10]: for another 30 minutes now she says also
[08:12]: you can sort of twist and squeeze this a
[08:15]: couple times to try to
[08:18]: get the last of the way
[08:20]: uh twist it gently
[08:23]: she doesn't say squeeze she says twist
[08:25]: it gently
[08:27]: once or twice to expel the last of the
[08:28]: way so i will set a timer for 30 minutes
[08:34]: and then we'll be almost done
[08:37]: almost done so this one takes a while
[08:39]: it's actually everything sits for like
[08:41]: an hour and a half
[08:43]: but it's very little hands-on time so
[08:44]: that's good but we'll see you back in
[08:47]: about 30 minutes all right our cheese
[08:49]: our crowdy cheese has been hanging like
[08:52]: this
[08:53]: for 30 minutes
[08:55]: give or take
[08:57]: actually give a little bit
[08:58]: and i twisted it a couple of times but
[09:01]: now i'm going to unwrap it
[09:07]: from the
[09:10]: there we go
[09:12]: from the um
[09:16]: wooden spoon
[09:18]: and
[09:19]: turn this out
[09:21]: into
[09:23]: a bowl i've got a little bowl we're
[09:25]: we're not going to keep it for very long
[09:26]: but she says
[09:28]: you can keep it in the refrigerator for
[09:29]: like five days
[09:31]: and we're going to add a little bit of
[09:33]: kosher
[09:34]: salt to this
[09:36]: and just
[09:37]: mix it in
[09:40]: so it really looks a lot like
[09:45]: ricotta to me
[09:49]: but you don't have to be
[09:51]: careful with it anymore
[09:53]: because you've gotten most of that way
[09:55]: out
[09:57]: and there we go it does look nicely
[09:60]: spreadable like it would go well you
[10:02]: know on a sandwich like she says but
[10:05]: our plans for this
[10:08]: is to serve this
[10:10]: with gingerbread so stay tuned and
[10:13]: you'll see our gingerbread with fresh
[10:15]: cup fresh
[10:17]: crud yes i know the name is interesting
[10:21]: next week where we'll use this but it is
[10:24]: just a very mild fresh spreadable cheese
[10:27]: that you can use on any sort of
[10:31]: bread product that you like oh also she
[10:33]: says
[10:34]: really you can use this whey
[10:37]: for um
[10:40]: in place of milk she says in the
[10:42]: brown buns at
[10:44]: boli i think bewley i forget how to
[10:48]: pronounce that anyway um but you can
[10:50]: also serve it on top of several other
[10:52]: recipes in here but like i said we're
[10:54]: gonna serve it
[10:56]: with the gingerbread so stay tuned
[10:59]: next week on this episode of cooking the
[11:01]: books with heather you watched me make
[11:03]: crowdy cheese from the outlander kitchen
[11:06]: cookbook
[11:07]: um
[11:09]: never made cheese before
[11:10]: and even though
[11:12]: i kind of messed it up a little bit
[11:15]: it turned out fine it turned out great
[11:17]: we
[11:18]: did not use it
[11:20]: um
[11:21]: so much
[11:23]: by itself because we had planned to use
[11:26]: it for another recipe so watch out for
[11:28]: that
[11:29]: next time
[11:30]: but ours turned out i was a little
[11:32]: surprised that mine was a little bit
[11:35]: salty
[11:37]: i used the amount of salt that she
[11:39]: called for even though often my salt
[11:41]: turns out to be less salty
[11:44]: than other salts because the kosher salt
[11:47]: that i have is even
[11:49]: less dense than a lot of kosher salts um
[11:52]: different brands are very different so
[11:55]: anyway um so it turned out a little bit
[11:58]: salty but
[11:60]: i would definitely make this again in
[12:02]: fact i think i probably will and use it
[12:04]: more as a
[12:06]: topping spread whatever
[12:09]: um instead of the
[12:11]: sweeter application that we used it for
[12:14]: um
[12:16]: it was a way easier than i expected um
[12:19]: you really just need you need to have
[12:21]: the cheesecloth
[12:23]: but milk lemon juice or vinegar
[12:27]: and then you have some fresh cheese and
[12:30]: we love cheese in our house so we'll be
[12:32]: trying this one again
[12:34]: so
[12:34]: let me know if you try it in the
[12:36]: comments down below or if you have any
[12:38]: other uh suggestions for how i should
[12:40]: use it because it is something that you
[12:42]: need to use up
[12:44]: pretty quickly um
[12:47]: i don't think it says on this page but i
[12:49]: think she said about five days or so
[12:51]: it's just it's just something that's
[12:53]: gonna it's not preserved like a lot of
[12:56]: cheeses are
[12:57]: the only preservatives in it are the
[12:59]: salt really
[13:00]: that you added
[13:01]: um
[13:02]: so yeah
[13:04]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[13:05]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
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[13:08]: me make something else next week
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[13:20]: big toe
[13:22]: i don't know it doesn't make any sense