my kez recipe

So, the kez worked out fine. The big picture is the final product - kinda like cream cheese, but (a) less fat (I'm guessing, as I didn't use cream) and (b) it had more of a ... zing to it. The top pic is the start, the middle pic is pouring it into the muslin after it had gone yoghurty (about 24 hours) and the bottom pic is the kez tied into a muslin cloth draining in the fridge.

Frankly, quite a lot of work, but then in the olden days, apparently, you couldn't buy philadelphia / cream cheese etc. Not sure I'd do it again apart from the dinner-party-conversation aspect. Or if I was on maternity leave.

As far as I know, no-one alive knows either of my grandmother's kez recipes, so through the wonder of the interweb, I have cobbled it together based on google-savvy, key words and guesswork. Also, my dad was pretty insistent about it being hung on the washing line to drain, but I feel like there are health and safety constraints to this. Or maybe she only made kez in the winter?

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Just under 2 litres of whole milk (I was adivsed not to use skimmed or semi-skimmed)
60 ml buttermilk

Instructions:
1 Heat the milk in a heavy large saucepan over a low heat until lukewarm - About 90°F. to 100°F - you can also do this in the microwave
2 Pour the milk into large bowl, and stir in the buttermilk.
3 Cover with a kitchen towel, and leave to stand for about 24 hours at room temperature until the mixture has formed a soft curd, rather like yogurt.
4 Line a large colander with a clean muslin cloth (I bought mine in Lakeland) and set the colander in the sink. Pour the milk mixture into the lined colander, and let it drain for around 10 minutes.
5 Fold the cloth over the curd to cover it. I tied it losely by drawing opposite corners together and tying into a knot. Hang This over a wooden spoon and leave it in a deep bowl, so the muslin doesn't touch the base.
6 Refrigerate until a thicker cheese forms, draining off the liquid after 8 hours, about 24 hours.
7 Transfer the cheese to a small container. Cover and store in the fridge for up to 4 days (although mine got eaten a lot quicker than that).