Talk:Farmer cheese

Panneer

Added recipe for Paneer from the paneer page --BostonMA 00:29, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Farmer's Cheese in Canada

This is not what I know of as Farmer's Cheese. In Canada, cheese labeled as Farmer's Cheese is white, rennet-cured young cheese. --Rhombus (talk) 20:54, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

It's the same way in the upper midwest U.S. I always assumed that what is called "Farmer's Cheese" is just a generic cheese, made using the simplest and most basic cheese-making techniques. Not trying to follow any fancy traditions or create a certain flavor. Thus, it's going to be completely different based on where it's made and who's making it. 69.95.232.207 (talk) 17:26, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

In the Northeast US, where the Russian population is present, farmer's cheese frequently refers to quark (Friendship brand name comes to mind). Quark also differs from the description of farmer's cheese. 208.120.172.27 (talk) 18:40, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

General

• Sorry for the bajillion edits. (I'm the one who added the image) I'd like to say that this is its typical form, but I'm not sure. I just know I like it! If anyone can confirm this, I'd like to change the caption to: "Farmer Cheese in its most commonly sold form". Also, it's great melted on a toased bagel with salsa! Thanks --Dagibit 02:57, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Category

The category was changed from cheeses to acid set cheeses. However, the recipe given for Cow milk farmer cheese uses renet, not an acid (such as lemon, vinegar etc.). I am restoring previous category. --BostonMA 02:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

And yet it clearly belongs in the same category as Cottage Cheese, Quark, and Cream Cheese. Most of these cheeses can be made without acid, by letting them sit a bit longer, etc. But they belong together, so I'm changing it back. --User:zsero 04:23, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Farmers' cheese seems to mean different things in different places. In California, it is very similar to cream cheese, but usually has more flavor and a crumblier texture than mass-produced cream cheese. In some places, though, like Eastern Europe, it is a harder cheese. However, no form of farmers' cheese that I have ever seen or tasted (and they have been many) has been made in the same way as, or tasted similar to, a quark. A quark is made from yogurt and is much thicker and richer in flavor than any farmer's cheese. —Preceding unsigned comment added by G murder (talk • contribs) 18:59, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Farmer's cheese is similar to any number of cheese like milk products (paneer, cottage cheese, etc.) because it is eaten fresh (i.e. not aged). A search for farmer's cheese at .edu and .gov sites will shows that they are all made with rennet, not with an acid. When making cheese a farmer's cheese is usually the first step, you then inoculate and age the cheese to change what you get in the long run. And so, I've moved this entry into the Cheeses category, removing it from the acid set cheeses (which it's not). Bhyde (talk) 23:13, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Recipes

I removed these recipes from the main article since they didn't belong there. However, in the interests of packrattery, I'm copying them here. —Steve Summit (talk) 04:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Goat Farmer's cheese

This recipe for "Farmer's Cheese" is nearly identical with Neufchatel Cheese, the recipe for which I posted some time ago on my Cheese Page.

I have modified this recipe from one I got from Julia Farmer a year or two back. She states that she got it from a book by Jean-Claude Le Jaouen, but did not mention the name of the book.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Two gallons goats milk
2. 1/4 cup cultured buttermilk
3. ½ tablet Rennet (or two drops of liquid rennet)

PROCEDURE:

Warm milk to room temperature (68-70°F) Dissolve 1/2 of a rennet tablet in 1/4 cup luke warm water. Stir in buttermilk, mix thoroughly. Stir in rennet, mix thoroughly, cover, let sit for 24 hours. Check for clean break. The curd should be firm enough to cut into 1/2 inch cubes (see page on Making 5 gallons of milk into cheese for pictures). Some recipes call for stirring the curds into a slurry, and pouring into a fairly tight weave bag to drain. However, if the weave is too loose, such as with a single layer or two of cheese cloth, the fine curd will run through at first. I far prefer to cut the curd as it makes for more easily separated curds and whey. ladel the curds into a sterile cloth in a strainer (or colander), and suspend in a refrigerator or cool place. Let the whey drain for 24 hours in a cool place. Salt to taste (about 1-2 teaspoons), store covered in the refrigerator for a week or two. This cheese will not keep for much longer.

Julia Farmer further says that you can press into small cheese molds for little cheeses roll them in ashes, place in a jar with garlic and herbs, cover with extra virgin olive oil Use it in cheese cake whip the cheese up with some powdered sugar, vanilla extract and a bit of lemon juice until its well blended and then serve as dessert with sliced strawberries over the top. or... "You can add a pinch of penicillium mold with the starter and cure them at 50°F for a Brie/Camembert clone." I have not tried that one yet, but have made Blue Cheese with these curds with great success.

Cow milk farmer's cheese

INGREDIENTS:

1. Cultured (NOT traditional) Buttermilk in original cardboard container

PROCEDURE:

Put Buttermilk in container into a pot. Fill the pot with water at least halfway up the container. Bring to boil and boil for 20 minutes. Take pot off the stove and wait till water cools to lukewarm. Pour contents of container into a hanging cheesecloth strainer. Strain for 12 hours.

Simplified technique: heat buttermilk in pot around 140 °F (it should steam but not simmer) for 10-15 minutes. Pour into fine mesh strainer and stir until "dry". Press out remaining moisture in paper towel or kitchen cloth.

A half pint (236 ml) of buttermilk should yield about 1.7 oz (50 g) of cheese.

Paneer (Indian farmer's cheese)

Paneer is easily made at home and should be consumed fresh. It stales with keeping and becomes brittle and useless with refrigeration.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 litre or quart full-fat milk
2. ½ teaspoon (2.5ml) citric acid or 4 teaspoons (20ml) lemon juice
3. 2 tablespoons (30ml) water

PROCEDURE:

Dissolve the citric acid in water. Bring milk to a boil, stirring continuously. Add the acid solution gradually, while stirring. When the white curds separate from the yellowish whey, switch off the heat. Cover for 3-4 minutes. Drain into a muslin cloth or cheesecloth. Tie up the cloth and hold it under running water. Press out excess water.

From this point, the preparation of paneer diverges based on proposed use. In Mughlai cuisine, the paneer-cloth is put under a heavy weight, such as a stone slab, for two to three hours, and is then cut into cubes for use in curries. Pressing for a shorter time (approximately 20 minutes), will result in a softer, fluffier cheese. Bengali cuisine demands paneer-dough produced by beating the paneer by hand into a dough-like consistency.

• the recipe 3.2 above is the most common way for homemade farmer cheese to be made though out europe, eastern at least... Obrez 05:03, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Term restricted to North America?

I've never heard this term used in the UK. If you used it, people would look at you blankly, or assume you were referring to farmhouse (traditionally made) Cheddar cheese. French Neufchâtel is occasionally available but is never described as 'farmer cheese'.

I'm not sure if British dairy farmers have never made this type of cheese, or if they just call it something else. --Ef80 (talk) 12:34, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

You can find Cottage Cheese in pretty much every supermarket in the UK - it's just an unpressed version.87.194.3.233 (talk) 08:12, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

I agree, the term "farmer cheese" is not used in the UK. But it does sound like it's more or less the same as cottage cheese (or curd cheese) - but it's not pressed. In the UK paneer would be described as a curd cheese, as would German quark and similar cheeses described here--62.249.233.80 (talk) 21:06, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

vs quark and fromage frais

The quark (cheese) and farmers cheese and Fromage frais articles need work to be fully consistent and to clearly distinguish the three (or are some the same but with different names?). Ccrrccrr (talk) 00:36, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Broadly put, I think it's safe to say the sundry quarks and fromages frais have come to overlap each other and are more or less the same kinds of cheese. However, this is muddled further because some of them are now made with rennet, as is (and long has been) farmers cheese, which is cottage cheese with the whey pressed out. Given this, some quarks and fromages frais, but not all, can now be thought of as takes on farmers cheese. When ripened, farmers cheese is Neufchâtel. I can't recall ever seeing farmers cheese, as such, in a European grocery store: When packaged as daily staples in the dairy section, one tends to see these cheeses as either goopy, yoghurt-like fromage frais (sold in plastic tubs, sometimes called fromage blanc, much better than it sounds) and simple white, lightly ripened Neufchâtels which are indeed very much like farmers cheese. As to how the articles might be handled, it comes down to how the sources define and deal with this. Gwen Gale (talk) 19:22, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

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