How To: Make fromage blanc cheese with buttermilk, whole milk, lemon juice and salt

Fromage blanc cheese is something every cook should experience in the kitchen. To consider yourself a real chef, you need to grab the cheesecloth and dip your hands in the cow's milk, because making cheese is a culinary experience like no other.

But you can't be a cheeseparing cheapskate, because making homemade cheese, unlike most other foods, is not necessarily cheaper than buying pre-made from the grocery store. Sometimes it can cost even more, but once you've finished and tasted your own cheese creation, money is but a mere inconvenience worth undergoing.

And one of the best cheeses to start out with in your kitchen— fromage blanc. Other's may call it fromage frais, maybe even maquée, but it's all the same. Fromage blanc is a French cheese— a soft French cheese— made from cow's milk, with a very distinguishable creamy sour taste. The recipe you're going to learn in this cheese-making video involves the following ingredients:

* Fresh, local whole milk (1 quart)
* Active-culture buttermilk (1 cup)
* Lemon juice or white vinegar (2 tsp, or more if needed)
* Salt (3/4 tsp, or to taste)
* Olive oil as garnish (optional)
* Salt (optional)
* Pepper (optional)

Supplies needed:

* Measuring cups
* Heavy-bottomed sauce pan
* Thermometer
* Colander
* Stock pot
* Cheesecloth
* String
* Wooden spoon
* Stirring spoons

Just follow along to the directions in the video to make your own homemade fromage blanc. It surprisingly doesn't take long at all to make the perfect handmade cheese!