Learning to make goat cheese~Recipes anyone?

[savingdogs]

Now that sounds yummy!

My family could eat a lot of feta and ricotta before they would tire of it.

Is mozarella a difficult cheese?

I have found lots of recipes online but I didn't know where to start or even where I found them.

 

[freemotion]

www.fiascofarm.com has a few basic recipes, including mozzarella, but the culture used in some of them is no longer available. The Dairy Connection people did tell me what to use to replace it, but I can't remember now....

I have not had much success with mozzarella so I stopped making it. I tried again after many dozens of batches of more complicated cheeses, hoping my experience would improve my success rate, but alas! I do get cheese that is yummy to slice and eat, but it doesn't stretch (rarely) so doesn't make a good melting cheese to top pizza and casseroles and such. If I grate it up and top something with it, it holds its shape and isn't gooey at all. But others have success every time they make it, so it could be me or my goat. I'll try again when I am milking unrelated goats this spring. Henrietta23 has a lot of success with it.

 

[colowyo0809]

I wanted to say thank you for this thread, and for pointing people to your blog I pulled several sites off there, and have bookmarked them in a special bookmark folder titled Cheese

Also, you've now given me a reason to keep the empty kitty litter buckets, I knew there was a reason for that!

 

[Javamama]

Mozzarella is my main goal for cheese, but soft cheeses are appealing too. Mmmm. So from what I am hearing, successful mozzarella seems to depend on the milk - protein, fat content, etc.
The small amount of milk I've gotten so far has been very creamy and rich. The taste is still not great. I sure do hope it gets better.

 

[Henrietta23]

I have done chevre and mozzarella using a kit from New England Cheese Making Company. Very simple and they have everything you need, including cheese cloth. What I like about chevre is that you flavor it yourself anyway you like. My current favorite is peppadew! Mmmmm!

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks for the link. I'm drooling over those cheese kits. I don't think I'm going to get as much milk as I hoped until I wean the kids, but I think Molly will be especially bountiful once her kid is sold. I have not tasted Ginger's milk but Molly's was very sweet.

I was reading last night that what they are eating plays a big part in how the milk tastes. But yours must be unable to forage this time of year as well I would think. This particular website said that timothy gives the sweetest milk and this last bale does happen to be timothy.

I wonder how it effects the taste of the cheese?

 

[Henrietta23]

Thanks for the link. I'm drooling over those cheese kits. I don't think I'm going to get as much milk as I hoped until I wean the kids, but I think Molly will be especially bountiful once her kid is sold. I have not tasted Ginger's milk but Molly's was very sweet.

I was reading last night that what they are eating plays a big part in how the milk tastes. But yours must be unable to forage this time of year as well I would think. This particular website said that timothy gives the sweetest milk and this last bale does happen to be timothy.

I wonder how it effects the taste of the cheese?

I'm sure it makes a difference somehow. Mine are eating timothy hay and Donki's milk still tastes good to me. We don't have pasture anyway so it's not like it's a huge difference between summer and winter here though.

 

[savingdogs]

I was reading that blackberries can alter the flavor and thought.........uh-oh....

I somehow thought it would sweeten things and make blackberry milk. Guess that was wishful thinking. Blackberry goat cheese sounds a bit odd anyway.