Can breast milk make cheese?
Breast milk cheese was not on my radar. Although I knew breast milk could make all sorts of wonderful things, like butter, soap, and lotion – I will have to admit that cheese was not something I had thought of. I saw an article on the New York Post web site about a restaurant in New York City serving breast milk cheese and that piqued my interest.
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Being as though I have a small freezer stash of my 18 months old milk almost from last year already, I decided to give it a try one day and experiment a bit! After a lot of research, I embarked on my first cheese making experience. I was surprised to learn that the process was quite easy and I already had most of what I needed. Just a quick Amazon order for rennet and I was in business.
Most of the recipes I found used a large amount of breast milk to start. I tweaked everything for a smaller batch because I did NOT want to waste a good amount of my milk if it didn’t turn out. Scroll on to view my breast milk cheese recipe.
How to make breast milk cheese
What I learned was that making cheese from human milk can be easy. It only takes a few ingredients. It does, however, take some time and there are quite a few steps involved. I was a little overwhelmed at first. Usually this happens when a recipe starts talking about temperature readings (which this one does). But I got out my thermometer and tried it anyway!
I also wasn’t expecting it to take so many hours (most of it just sitting obviously). Below are the ingredients, equipment list and the step-by-step instructions. I tried my best to make it as simple as possible. Yes, you will need a thermometer.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup breast milk (mother’s milk)
- 1 cup animal milk (I used whole cow milk)
- ¾ teaspoon teaspoon active cultured yogurt
- ⅛ tablet rennet (see instructions below)
- ½ teaspoon salt (I used Kosher salt)
- Thermometer
- Sterilized jar with lid
Instructions:
Part 1
- Combine breast milk and cow’s milk together in a sterilized jar. Bring breast milk and cow’s milk to 68 degrees F. You can do this by allowing it to sit at room temperature or warming slightly in a bowl of water.
- Stir in yogurt starter. Cover with lid. Let the mixture sit for 6-8 hours at room temperature (68 degrees F). Mixture will develop tart yogurt taste. This is from the bacteria in the yogurt converting the milk sugar into lactic acid.
Part 2
- After 6-8 hours prepare rennet by dissolving ⅛ of a tablet into ⅛ cup water.
- Heat mixture in pot to 86 degrees F, then add the rennet and water solution. Stir thoroughly.
- Cover the pot and let sit for one hour.
- At this point you are looking for something called a “clean break stage”. A clean spoon should be able to lift a small piece of curd out of the milk. To be sure what this means, see an example here.
- Let the pot sit for up to one more hour until a “clean break” is achieved.
- Next, run a knife through curds to create ½ inch squares.
- Raise temperature slowly while stirring continuously with a pastry spatula. For softer cheese raise temperature to 92 degrees for a harder cheese you can bring temp closer to 102 degrees F.
- Once heated curd will fall to the bottom of the pot and the whey (liquid) will surround the cheese. The cheese will have a scrambled egg consistency.
- You can strain off or use a cheesecloth to squeeze out the whey liquid (you can reserve the liquid to drink or use in smoothies later).
- Place cheese in a bowl, then sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
- My kiddo enjoyed this cheese made from human breast milk fresh from the pot. I like to make him a little cheese plate. But you can age this cheese similar to regular cheese.
What does breast milk cheese taste like?
Because I used cow’s milk with breastmilk, it had a familiar mild cow’s cheese taste but was a little sweeter. Overall not bad! Although, I don’t think you’ll be seeing this cheese on a restaurant menu in Wisconsin anytime soon.
How to store breast milk cheese
Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. I labeled it mommy’s milk cheese because the name human cheese just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
How long is breast milk cheese good for?
You can age this cheese for up to two weeks. However my toddler ate this small batch of breast-milk cheese in 5-7 days. If at any point in the process the cheese becomes moldy or develops a sour odor, please discard.
Would I make this cheese again?
I would! This perfectly healthy food makes a great snack for my toddler. Because I have a small stash of freezer milk coming up on one year, I can’t donate it to any milk banks. But you better believe I’m still using every hard earned drop! And now that I have some knowledge in the cheese making process (along with some leftover rennet) I think I’m going to try to make some fresh cheese from just cows milk. I’ll be sure to post an update on that!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventure with making human breast milk cheese. Let me know in the comment if you tried this recipe! I’ll be trying breast milk ice cream next!
Curious about other breast milk recipes?
Breast Milk Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 cup breast milk (mother's milk)
- 1 cup animal milk (I used whole cow milk)
- ¾ teaspoon teaspoon active cultured yogurt
- ⅛ tablet rennet (see instructions below)
- ½ teaspoon salt (I used Kosher salt)
- Thermometer
- Sterilized jar with lid
Instructions
Part 1
- Combine breast milk and cow’s milk together in a sterilized jar. Bring breast milk and cow’s milk to 68 degrees F. You can do this by allowing it to sit at room temperature or warming slightly in a bowl of water.
- Stir in yogurt starter. Cover with lid. Let the mixture sit for 6-8 hours at room temperature (68 degrees F). Mixture will develop tart yogurt taste. This is from the bacteria in the yogurt converting the milk sugar into lactic acid.
Part 2
- After 6-8 hours prepare rennet by dissolving ⅛ of a tablet into ⅛ cup water.
- Heat mixture in pot to 86 degrees F, then add the rennet and water solution. Stir thoroughly.
- Cover the pot and let sit for one hour.
- At this point you are looking for something called a “clean break stage”. A clean spoon should be able to lift a small piece of curd out of the milk. To be sure what this means, see an example here.
- Let the pot sit for up to one more hour until a “clean break” is achieved.
- Next, run a knife through curds to create ½ inch squares.
- Raise temperature slowly while stirring continuously with a pastry spatula. For softer cheese raise temperature to 92 degrees for a harder cheese you can bring temp closer to 102 degrees F.
- Once heated curd will fall to the bottom of the pot and the whey (liquid) will surround the cheese. The cheese will have a scrambled egg consistency.
- You can strain off or use a cheesecloth to squeeze out the whey liquid (you can reserve the liquid to drink or use in smoothies later).
- Place cheese in a bowl, then sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
- My kiddo enjoyed this cheese made from human breast milk fresh from the pot. I like to make him a little cheese plate. But you can age this cheese similar to regular cheese.
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