Crottin part 2 and cheese #2

The young cheeses have been taken out of the mold after being turned a second time. They have been salted and are in the drying process on day 2 today. I turned them this morning and they look and smell nice. They are still in my cool office with the window cracked for a breeze. Tomorrow I will put them in the little tiny refrigerator I have set up as my cave for the aging process. They will stay there for at least 2 months because the milk is raw. Within 10 days they should be growing white fuzzy mold so I will document our progress.

The milk I set to ripen yesterday morning with the same amount of culture, rennet and Geotrichum mold powder as the last batch- but used 7 quarts of milk (approx.) instead of 4 gave me a ginormous yield of curd this morning! I remembered too late yesterday that with raw milk you need less culture and rennet than with dead, pasteurized milk.

 

Here I'm taking the curd I drained for about 10 hours in a drain bag and filling my little Crottin molds.

I'm pretty proud looking at my little cheeses! The top ones are about done drying and ready to go age, and the others will be turned and salted in the morning.

Here's the notebook I use for "make sheets" It's a Decompostion brand with an artisan cheese print. I love it. I also found an apron with a similar print on Amazon. Youn know, just for fun :)

As you can obviously see I'm not professional about this at all. It's not my way. I do keep meticulous records on my goats though.

This Proverbs 31 Collette Crottin. :) She's a 2nd generation miniature Nubian dairy goat. Her beauty aside, she's bred for milk- rich, high protein and butterfat, creamy milk!