Milk, Powdered - Using To Make Cheese

[sgshoemaker09]

Has anyone tried or had any success with making milk from dried milk powder? Our cow is dried off right now and I am having cheese making withdrawl :)

[dthelmers]

I've done it twice, adding cream. It set a curd fine, but lacked flavor. Both times I was making mozzarella.

[dttorun]

I did a couple of times. It is good for brined and fresh cheese but not for hard cheese. I even doubled the powder/water ratio to make it dense. You get very firm curd but this time whey expulsion rate is very slow.
I believe commercially they blend powder with regular milk to make yogurt thicker...
Tan

[sgshoemaker09]

Not the answer I was hoping for but food for thought.

I doubt my kids would notice that their cheese strings didn't have much flavour  ;D

I never thought of brined cheese, I wonder if feta would work?

[Tomer1]

I would go with store bought.
The only reason I would use powder is to up the protein in a perticular cheese.

[mrawlins]

My first successful cultured mozza was with powdered milk (+ a little bit of coconut oil).  The cow was dry, I needed a cheese, and we had come into the powder and oil for free.  I added a bit too much oil, but the mozza turned out well enough.  It was a huge confidence boost that I could actually make a mozza.  I used linuxboy's mozza recipe, from somewhere on the forum.

The flavor is not as good as with the cow's milk, but I wouldn't characterize it as "flavorless."  It didn't have as robust a flavor, but it worked well for pizza and cooking.  It was probably my 2-year-old's favorite mozza I've made, but that's mostly because he doesn't like stronger flavors in his cheese yet.

If the milk is free I would (and do) use it.  If you're buying milk, go liquid.

[Tomer1]

I find mozz pretty flavorless anyhow so I cant imagine it become even more so but since it goes onto pizza which is packed with flavors it really not an issue. Mozz is all about texture and "will burn your mouth" cheese strings :)

[sgshoemaker09]

I could just buy milk, but after seeing the taste difference between using my raw milk and store bought milk, I don't even like to drink store bought milk anymore, let alone use it for cheese. I have a few bottles of frozen that I am carefully hording until our cow freshens again.

The only reason why I would use the powder is because we already have it on hand, lots of it, more than I would even use in an emergency which is why we bought it in the first place.

Sarah