EDITOR’S NOTE: Joyce is our newest writer at ZenKimchi. You can also catch her and her kitchen hacking skills at the amazing blog Knifing Forking Spooning.
Making cheese isn’t something I’ve ever been interested in. I’ve just been interested in eating it. It wasn’t until I came to Korea that my interest for cheese consumption collided with cheese production. After realizing I could make my own cottage cheese and ricotta, it wasn’t a big leap to making pressed cheeses. The largest obstacle in making cheese isn’t the process; it’s getting the materials. Rennet can be purchased online in Korea, but cheese cultures are a bit more difficult to procure. The beauty of ricotta salata is that it doesn’t require any special ingredients like rennet or cultured buttermilk. The hardest part is waiting for the cheese to cure for at least two weeks.
I’ve already posted on my own blog about making a cheese mold and pressing out a ricotta salata. This post is still about ricotta salata, but instead of laboring over making a cheese mold, I’ve found that it’s much easier to use a sink drainer.