Homemade Plastic

Step 3 Strain

Slowly pour the heated liquid through the colander and into the larger pot. Most of the chunks of casein will get caught. We pour slowly to avoid splashing the plastic-loaded liquid into the sink. Something tells me that chunks of this stuff in the drain is not a Good Thing(tm).

Once you've poured it out (don't worry about what's left in the bottom, we'll get to that), gently shake the strainer, and swirl it around a little. Most of the casein will lump up in the bottom, pulling itself out of the holes. Make sure a majority of the liquid is strained out, but don't press it out -- the casein will just get stuck in the holes, and make it harder to get out.

Now that it's all clumped together, dump it out on some wax paper.

If you have a super-porous strainer like mine, you may want to pour the liquid through the strainer several times. Doing it a second time pulled a chunk about 1/4 as large as the original mass; that's a nice addition.

Comments

[karthikvasudevan]

What you've made right there is what we in India call 'paneer' we use it in curries n stuff its delicious, its a kind of cheese, and i'm not sure its a plastic.

[mnkypwr]

what do u do with the excess liquid? can it be thrown out like any other liquid?

[drawe21]

Put a coffee filter in your colander and save every bit of the plastic. The rest down the drain.

[Coffeebot]

Yeah, I usually pour it down the sink. It's the super chunky stuff that I think would be bad to let wash down. Once you've strained it a few times to get the big stuff out, it should be safe to dump. Run the tap for a little while just to make sure everything is washed down. YMMV, of course. I've had no problems, but you never know.

[chamunks]

Could you rinse this with some hot water to possibly remove as much of the smelly liquid as possible?

[Coffeebot]

I don't really know about rinsing with hot water...I don't think it would hurt it too much. However, it's not really all that smelly if you strain it well enough.

[t.rohner]

Why don't you take cheesecloth for straining, that's what is made for.

[bytowneboy]

+1