So I got this cookbook last year from my dear friend Paula who had edited it and thought it was right up my alley. I have made about 4 cheeses from it and it is sure interesting; title is “Instant Pot Cheese” by Claudia Llucero. This past weekend I made the queso blanco on the cover of it.

The Instant Pot is used for precise heating of milk and makes the process easier and more approachable. You also should get an instant read thermometer and perhaps a smaller IP metal liner; I have a 6 quart pot and I got a 3 qt liner which perches on my metal trivet in a cup of water for heating up to a half gallon of milk.

To make queso blanco it takes a half gal of whole milk, 1/4 cup cider vinegar and a bit of cheese salt; a finely textured salt that I bought about a pound which will probably last me forever. It was fun although I first used a thick rubber trivet which raised my liner pot and I couldn’t get it open for 4 hours. When I finally got it open, I dumped out the milky water in the bottom; rinsed the liner and used my skinny wire trivet which worked perfectly. Less than an hour later I had placed the cheese curds in a plastic mold and it was ready for consumption. So delicious and so fresh! Great on crackers, excellent in Mexican cooking and tasty in Brazilian tapioca rolls.

I’ve made a few different cheeses and hope to do some mozzarella sometime soon. They tell you what kind of milk to use for each recipe; stay away from ultra pasteurized and homogenized milk… apparently it doesn’t do cheese. If you are into, do it yourself and you like cheese and you have an IP this cookbook is perfect for you!

Here’s a shot of my cheese and crackers Saturday night; my Friday night snapshot didn’t pan out so it is rathe champed on!