Saw a recipe online for homemade queso blanco. It's just milk, a little vinegar, a little salt. I'm going to make some tomorrow to see how it goes. I like the Rico's brand at $2.99/can. It's going to be interesting to see the yield on the homemade. It calls for a gallon of milk but I'm only going to use a quart to see how I like it. Plus, it sounds like fun! Here's a link
Learn to make this simple queso blanco cheese. Perfect for beginners, queso blanco, meaning white cheese in Spanish, is a Latin American cheese. It is a firmer cheese, with a slightly sweet flavor and is super easy to make.
www.culturesforhealth.com
I looked for the forum for food/recipes but even after searching, I can't seem to find where to put this info so I'll put it here and wait to be castigated. :-)
I made the queso blanco this morning, using 1 quart of milk, 1/8 cup vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt; using an enamel pot, I brought the mixture to 185 degrees, then poured it into the straining cloth, leaving it to drip for about an hour. The quart yielded close to 2 cups of "queso."
The resulting "queso" was crumbly, like cottage cheese without the liquid. The taste was VERY bland...not offensive, but basically no taste. So, I got out a can of Ricos to check the ingredients but I didn't find anything that I would have...eg., cheddar cheese cultures, enzymes (which I interpret to be MSG but could be wrong), modified corn starch, etc., but no actual spices were listed.
So, I put a TBSP of the "queso" into a bowl to begin trying to get it to taste a bit better and try to get it to be more viscous. I added a little whole milk back in which made more of a paste. More salt...not much change. Then, I began adding a few spices to see what would result. I added a little cumin, a little onion powder...not much improvement. Then, I added a little homemade seasoning salt but again, not much change. It lacks depth is the only way I can describe it.
This "queso" would be OK but it's not the flavor I seek. I tried it on a piece of french bread and could hardly taste the "queso." I didn't want to open a sleeve of crackers to give that a whirl...too cheap to waste a whole sleeve of the crackers. :-)
If anyone has suggestions for improvement of this product, I'd love to know. It was fun and easy to do...took about 15 minutes or so to get the first liquid to correct temperature.
Hope to hear some good suggestions. I know there are some good cooks here.