Cheesemaking Thread

[patandchickens]

So who out there makes cheese?

I don't -- well, *barely* -- but having just discovered that you can press and salt and very-slightly age your homemade ricotta into something that actually has many attributes of Actual Cheese, I am back to wanting to experiment more

Anyone made hard cheese?


Pat

 

[freemotion]

Shall I start a different thread for goat cheese? Or shall I ask for it here? Looks like I will be attempting that VERY soon. One can only eat so much yogurt and drained yogurt cheese!

 

[patandchickens]

FWIW, I have read that it is harder to make cheese from early milk with colostrum still in it.

I'd love to hear more about making goat cheese, though!

Pat

 

[freemotion]

What is FWIW? Hmm...can't figure it out....

Right now the chickens are getting the excess colostrum. I have to gather up all the xmas trees I dragged in from the farm next door, leftovers from this past season. Mya suddenly has been craving the needles, so I brought in a few more for her. She's slowed down now, so I will toss them out of her reach and then maybe day after tomorrow I'll start milking in a more sanitary way and make my first batch of yogurt. When the pine taste is gone, hopefully in a day!

I will keep you posted on the cheese. I just toodled through the Fiasco Farm recipe section, and there is some good info there. Looks like I will need to order some stuff, though. Everything I ordered last fall was for cow's milk cheese. Rats.

But she has a mozzarella recipe using goat milk!!! Yeah, baby!! Can't wait for THAT pizza to come out of the oven.....oh, and lasagna, too.....

 

[patandchickens]

"for whatever it's worth" Sorry!

Pine-flavored goat yogurt... sounds very esoteric LOL


Pat

 

[Iceblink]

I haven't made hard cheese, but paneer is a beginner type cheese that is delicious. It doesn't need cultures or rennet, just vinegar or buttermilk.

You can find recipes in Indian cookbooks. It makes a semi-firm squeaky cheese that is delicious in things like Mutter Paneer (peas and cheese curry) or paneer pakoras (spiced cheese fritters).

Has anybody here made chevre? I am addicted to it on salads and would love to know how to make my own. I think I want to stick with 'young' cheeses for a while to gain confidence and experience.

 

[freemotion]

Stay tuned for a few weeks until I work out the kinks....I just milked my first "sanitary" quart tonight, it is in the fridge.

I am starting to wonder if Mya was ever milked regularly. Everything they told me about her was likely a lie. She has a docile nature, but tonight she was horrid. I had to tie her up with baling twine around her belly, and I wish I had hobbles. I will make some tomorrow based on a picture I saw online, looks pretty simple....oh, shoot, I don't have any velcro, used up the last bits on the baby goat coat.

She may be upset because I took baby away for a couple hours to go the the vet, he has pneumonia. He is finally under the heat lamp. I couldn't hang it in his usual spot under the hay rack and he didn't want to sleep anywhere else, until I blocked that space off.

More to worry about! But I am determined, more determined than she realizes, to have homemade cheese!!!!

 

[Wifezilla]

I have a rennet question.

Allegedly there are veggie alternatives to getting rennet from a calf. I have read that some even include nettle and creeping charlie. What I have not found os HOW you use the veggies to make a rennet replacement.

Anyone know??

 

[Beekissed]

I was wondering, free, if you are set up in a way that you are feeding this goat while you are milking her? I'm sure you are, but if not, we always got a good milking done while the goats were eating a cup or two of feed or a flake of hay.

 

[freemotion]

No idea on the veg rennet. I bought animal rennet, since that will most likely make the product more digestible, IMHO.

Actually I don't have my milking set up yet. I was planning on it in about two months. Hmmph. Turkeys tomorrow, so I struggle on. I just tied her near her hay. She was so desparate to empty that udder that she stood still the first time, I think.

She is naturally docile, so I think she will come around. As soon as the finishing touches are on the turkey pen (turkeys arrive tomorrow) I will slap together a milking stand....yeesh. Until then, the rodeo takes place between 9 and 10, AM and PM. I should put it on youtube.....NOT!

I am getting ss at a breakneck pace here. Yikes! I am used to spacing out my new projects a little more!