Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Raw Goat Milk Farmstead Cheddar part 1

I have been on a big cheese making kick. With so much milk from the girls, I have got to do something with it, and we eat so much cheese- especially cheddar.
I am not a perfectionist, and tend to put my own spin on everything, but so far so good.
I started out with two gallons of raw goat milk. If it's straight from the goat and strainer, body temperature works great. If it's been chilled like mine had, heat it up to 85'.
I boiled water in my cheese pot to make it sterile first, along with the stainless steel slotted spoon. After letting it boil 10 minutes or so, I dumped the water into the sink to make the bath. The hot pot is now empty and I dump my two cold gallons of milk in there, put the lid on and set the whole thing in the hot water bath. It only takes a few minutes to get the temp up and I stir frequently.
I do it this way because it's convenient and easy. Two things I like.

Now my milk is the right temp, I add my two ounces of mesophilic culture. (you can substitute with cultured buttermilk) My culture is frozen into cubes, so I toss in two and stir until completely dissolved and the whole batch of milk has gotten it's share. To make the culture, you are supposed to go through a process too, but I just boil the quart jar and lid so it's sterile, add raw milk, and the packet of culture starter, stir, and let it sit for I think about 14 or so hours. Then I freeze it into cubes for easy use. You can ruin a perfectly good culture packet not starting with pasturized milk I suppose, but I know my milk is clean.


I keep a clean bowl of cold water to set my spoon in so it stays clean. The water is changed every now and again throughout the process.


Once the culture is mixed in, the milk ripens for 30 minutes. So, it's time for a cup of raw goat milk latte with cinnamon and a muffin.

The lid comes off and I put in the rennet now. I have tablets at the moment. I prefer the liquid, but oh well, use what you have.

1/4 of a rennet tablet has been setting in 1/4 cool water (well water here) for the past 30 minutes as well, in order to dissolve. You can't use chlorinated city water.


Stir it in gently, but oh-so-thoroughly. I stirred for a few minutes. Peaceful. I need peace around here. You'll see why in a minute.
Now, this sits for an hour. So...


might as well make a quick batch of chocolate cherry and walnut icecream, right?
Gotta use up that milk.


Don't look around and see that the whole house is a mess and the baby is tired of the highchair and has thrown his food down to the dog. No! Don't look! It'll just stress you out. It does me.

I tell baby the icecream is ready and I'll share. Good, now he's quiet.

I'm still waiting another 30 minutes for the milk to become curd, so I'll check over the recipe again and enjoy some amazing raw milk icecream.

Part 2 coming soon...



2 comments:

  1. this is so intriguing, can't wait for part two...I thought the process for making feta was interesting also and had been wondering if you made other varieties of cheese!

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  2. Mmmmm . . . 'nuff said. '-)

    Blessings from Ohio . . . Kim<><

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