Got this from the SBD Daily Dish of 6/24/09:

I'm going to look for 'farmer's cheese', but don't think I've ever seen it. What is it like? Ricotta? Cream cheese? Cottage?

The type of Farmer's cheese I buy (Friendship brand) is similar in texture to fresh mozzarella. I never tried softening it like you would cream cheese so I don't know if it would work in this recipe.

Farmer cheese is also very easy to make. It is very common in Lithuanian (me) & Polish (DH) kitchens. Here's a recipe for homemade Farmer's cheese but make sure you read the reviews for some very helpful hints & tips. The homemade Farmer's cheese is soft similar in texture & taste to ricotta.

p.s. as the homemade cheese only lasts about a week, I make a half batch of this recipe.

Have you ever tried it with 2% milk? I'm hesitant to make something with this much fat though the recipe is very tempting.

I make mine with 2% milk. Of course whole milk is tastier. Tried it with fat free milk and it didn't really come out well. Haven't tried 1%...don't know why. Make sure the milk is regular milk and not ultra-pasteurized...it will never work.

One of the reviews suggests using buttermilk. I've been meaning to try that but haven't yet.

ETA: It took me several tries before it came out how I like. My biggest mistake was not heating the milk enough (the drained whey should be yellowish not white-ish). What I eventually also learned is that if it doesn't curdle/set up enough when draining you can dump the whole thing back into the pot & try again.

The cheese can also be pressed if you want a more solid cheese. It's tasty both ways.

Chelby, I buy Friendship brand like Cyndi. It's like a mix between cream cheese and cottage cheese. If you can't find it, I'd try mixing half 1/3 less fat cream cheese and 1% cottage cheese.

You might also look online for {replacement and "farmer's cheese"} (without brackets).

I don't see milk in the recipe? Am I missing something?

Loriann, if you are going to make Farmer's Cheese from scratch, one of the ingredients is milk, and that's what Cyndi is referring to.

Do you think these would be good the next day? Or is it something that needs to be eaten right afterwards?

I tend to try to cook in batches and make up as much as possible on the weekend so I have plenty of options through the week.

If I find milk on sale, I'll make some of the farmers cheese. It sounds interesting.

Thanks
Sarah in MD

Hi, this is regarding the farmer's cheese recipe. I was reading the recipe on how to make farmer's cheese, it seems to be PANEER which can be found in Indian grocery stores in the frozen section.