Cheese from powdered milk

The question is, can cheese be made from powdered milk? And the answer is, yes.

Being witty cheese makers all around you are probably better at this than I am. So my hat's off to you. Frankly, I haven't a clue what I'm doing. 

All I know is I bought a box of this powdered milk and it is totally ace. A lot better than I had imagined. I'm mixing it with sugared cocoa powder and not knowing the difference between this and regular milk directly out of a cow. It's awesome. 22 quarts is like, what?, 5 + 1/2 gallons? I'm going through it fast, I need another box. I bought if for bread because the bread people talk about it and at Sam's everything is huge, but it's about the same price as a little box at a reasonable store. 

Whoever invented this was brillo pads. Or demented.

Instructions always say you're going to need cheesecloth. This is what it is for. But who has any of that laying around? I used to, but it's a pain in the butt. It's open and irregular, you need several layers to make up for the irregularities. You can use a clean t-shirt for the same thing. I'm using a bar towel, here marketed as flour sack cloth. They make great dish towels. I buy them by the dozen to wrap sourdough loaves. They make pretty good wrapping paper that's fabric, and they're inexpensive.

People return them, and that's rather silly. I ask them why and they go because they should and because it's only right and to encourage more bread.

*  The milk is stronger than normal, 2:1 water to milk powder

*  I understand there is low fat milk. Apparently that works too.

*  Instructions say to use vinegar. I used lemon juice. It worked but incompletely. The liquid was white and it should have been clear so I did it again using the same whey, now with lemon, and added cider vinegar. That second addition of acid brought the rest of the solids together.

* You can expect about as much cheese out as powder that is put in. 

* Sea salt and thyme added right before squeezing.

So there you go. But how does it taste?

It tastes okay. 

But does it melt?

It melts okay.

I didn't do so well with this. The lemon juice was a misstep. I think it's my fault and not the milk powder's fault. I'm not very good at this sort of thing and the whole time I was thinking the pros do so much better. I honestly cannot see the point of making one's own cheese when there are so many skilled people doing amazing things. When you get down to it, all that goes into it, they are very reasonably priced.

Conclusion: good, but best left to the pros.