I've made hard cheese, this was my first attempt at Paneer with some added bacteria for flavor.
Hard cheese you need rennet, and some cooking time. The longer you cook the cheese, the harder it will be. You have to cut the curds into about 1/2" to 1/4" cubes, then let them sit in warm water for a while which allows more surface area = more water loss. The heat allows the proteins to bind up harder too. Then the curds are drained, washed, salted, and pressed...this will finish your hard cheese.
Last night I heated some whole milk with some cream added, plus I added some culture that I had created by letting some buttermilk sit on the kitchen counter for about three days, then froze it in an ice cube tray to give me cubes of the stuff that can be stored over a long period of time. I think it needs to "ripen" a bit longer (like several hours) as I didn't get much flavor OR the freezing messed up the bacteria.
Anyway, I added cider vinegar and it curdled in to bits of curd with whey, poured it off into a double cheese cloth, drained it and ended up with some lovely though not very tasty farmer cheese.
SO in the future although the milk had started to show bubble of a boil beginning to form, I think I will cook it more, as the cheese was Ricotta-like...which would go very well in a lasagna, OR I could make some and add some garlic and herbs and use it as a cracker spread for company during the holidays.
I am also thinking of using a thick piece of linen canvas with a rather simple, thick weave, instead of the cheese cloth, as the cheese cloth seems a bit too "open" even when doubled.
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 cube of buttermilk culture
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tspn of fine sea salt
I will try it again and give it several hours to be warm to see if the bacteria will give me any flavor. I will also try it plain, with lemon juice instead of vinegar. My cheese making manual says for something like a hard cheese I should add calcium chloride solution to aid the rennet when using pasteurized milk...I may try that in the future too.
What I ended with is good. It would accept herbs or red pepper well, it's very Ricotta-ish, so it would also accept sweetener and maybe make a good cannoli filling, thought the texture would be a bit different.
:idunno:
This could easily be done in a camp or living history setting, and I'm thinking suspend the cheese in the cloth inside a large, covered pot to allow it to drain and keep bugs off of it until time to eat it.
LD