• Butter-grade cheese cloth (from a cheesemaker -- the stuff from the supermarket is too coarse)
• 1 quart whole milk (making cheese with less than 1 qt milk is not recommended)
• acid of choice
• salt to taste
• various add-ins (e.g. parsley, garlic, fresh ground pepper, sage)

Tried and True Acids (pick one):

• juice of 2 whole lemons - imparts a definite, but pleasant, lemon flavor to the final product. Leaves the cheese white.
  • FDA figure for pH of lemon juice: 2.0 - 2.6
• 1.5 c cranberry juice cocktail, 27% cranberry juice - causes fantastic curding even on homogenized milk. Turns the cheese a purpley brown color, and imparts almost no flavor to the cheese. Whey also does not taste like cranberry (but tastes fantastic). Where the cranberry flavor goes is an utter mystery.
  • FDA figure for pH of canned cranberry juice: 2.3 - 2.52
    • I'm assuming this was for pure juice, since we needed ~3x as much juice as the pH calcs indicated -- Katie
• If you'd like to use something else, just remember that pH = -log([H+]). Get the right number of H+ ions in there, and you should at least be in the ballpark. The FDA publishes a bunch of pH values for foods online.

Acids with Mixed Results (for the brave):

• 2c + 6T cider vinegar - whey had a milky, cloudy quality that didn't go away even after adding a significant amount of additional regular vinegar(1/2 c?). Curds were extremely tiny, drainage was slow, and the final product tasted strongly of vinegar. Some people liked it anyway.

Set milk in top pan of a double-boiler and bring up to 170F, using a thermometer. It should be just at the "frothy" point.

Meanwhile, prepare acid (measure, juice lemons, etc).

When milk has reached temperature, remove from heat and add milk to acid (or acid to milk, I don't think it matters) and stir to let curds form. It should look like small pieces of milk floating in a transparent liquid: if the liquid is milky, the milk has not curdled enough and probably needs more acid.

Let curds sit 15 minutes.

Pour curds and whey into a cheesecloth, tie the ends, and suspend over a pot to drain, about 2 hours.

Scrape cheese from cheese cloth, add salt until it tastes good (~1T?), then add whatever else you like.