Medieval people made cheese.  And so will I!  I learned how in a class at the Diverse Pleasures event.  1/29/2011

First you need cheesecloth.  And I don't mean the stuff you find in the paint department. That's like GAUZE.  Look at the difference in food grade, finer woven cheesecloth:

Next you need milk.  Believe it or not, for these cheeses, you can purchase milk right off the grocery store shelf and it works just fine! No need to find anything special.

First you turn milk into yogurt.
Here's how my instructor taught us to do that:
Fill a thermos with the milk. Now pour that milk into a microwave safe bowl, and heat to a boil in the microwave to kill any wild microbes.
Cool to 122 F, the optimum temp for yogurt culture to grow. Stir in 2-3 heaping teaspoons full of active culture yogurt.
Put the mixture back in the thermos, cap tightly, and leave undisturbed for 8-14 hours.
Open the thermos, pour in a bowl, and you will find it thickened.  You just made Greek Yogurt!


Then turn the yogurt into yogurt cheese!  So easy and delicious. 
To make Labneh: Line a colander with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl to catch the whey you drain out.
Pour your thermos of yogurt into the cheesecloth. Let drain until it reaches the consistency of about cream cheese.
Check on it every 2 hours or so.
That's it!

You can eat it plain and add salt, or mix in add-ins of many varieties.... like garlic/herbs, jam or fruits.
You can use FINE grained sea salt for your cheese salt; it doesn't really matter since it's added after the fact.  Non-iodized salt is recommended, though. Regular table salt contains anti-caking agents that may interfere. The instructor recommended flake salt but I didn't like the crunchy texture of the larger grained sea salt in my cheese.  o_O

Save that whey to turn into ricotta cheese!

Next, lemon cheese.  Heat up the milk to 165F. Stir often to avoid scorching. Remove from heat, and add the juice of two lemons and stir for 5 seconds, then allow it to sit for 15 minutes.
You will see stringy white curd and greenish liquid whey. Line colander with cheesecloth, and pour mixture through. Tie up the cheesecloth and hang until it stops dripping.  (Drip into a bowl so you can reuse that whey!)

That's it! Salt to taste.  Keeps up to 1 week refrigerated.

Now make ricotta with all that leftover whey.

Since it's already filtered out, just cover and let sit for 12-24 hours to achieve sufficient acidity.
Next, heat the whey to about 179.6 degrees F (a white foam should start forming on the surface).
Keep heating until it is near boiling (203 F). Careful not to boil over. Remove from heat.
Now drain whey through cheesecloth. Once drained, hang cheesecloth and leave for several hours, overnight in refrigerator if needed, so the rest of the liquid will drip out.
That's it!

But wait, there's more!  There's one more thing you can do with that liquidy leftover whey....!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Great-Ricotta-Cheese-From-Whey/
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Gjetost/Gjetost.htm

You can make a Norwegian cheese from the whey after making ricotta called gjetost (from cow's milk) or mysost (from goat's milk). It's a buttery, cheddary flavored, caramel-colored cheese with a slight sweet/sour bite. It's used more like a spread, or can be used in sauces and soups, or to flavor veggies.

You cook down your whey over a several hours until it renders down to about 1/4 (or less) of the original volume.

After it begins to thicken (probably after several hours), watch it closely and stir regularly to prevent it from burning or sticking. Finally, once the consistency resembles fudge, remove from heat, stir or whisk? vigorously, then pour into a buttered/greased pan.
*Try an ice-cold container; rapid cooling is the key to making smooth cheese.  If desired consistency is not achieved, just re-heat and try the pouring/cooling process again.
Allow to cool.  Refrigerate until you use it.   Slice it thinly.  The Scandanavians serve it on Ryekrisp crackers.