Cashmere is our name and cashmere is our game. But oh do I love those goat milk things, the soap!, the lotion!, yogurt!, cheese! So I have a small crew of Alpines and Saanen Alpine crosses and I love them so!!
My favorite cheese is Chevre. It makes me so happy on a pizza with a bunch of spinach from the garden, or crumbled on my salad. For me, it is also the easiest to make. Sure there's 30 minute Mozzarella, and farm-style cheese (Paneer) with just milk and lemon juice. But even those require heating to just the right temperature and, well, standing around in the kitchen making a mess for at least an hour. I do love them, but my favorite cheese to make and to eat is Wasabi Chevre.
Making Chevre fits just right into my daily schedule. Each step is quick and easy, so while it takes a couple days from start to finish, it feels like you're hardly doing anything and like magic, there it is!
Here's my recipe and how I put it together:
1 1/2 gallons fresh raw goat milk
1/4 tsp dry Chevre culture
4 drops vegetable rennet
1/4 cup water
2 tsp salt
2 TBS Wasabi from the squeeze tube
I know, Wasabi?! Yeah, the stuff that comes flaming out your nose when you put the tiniest dab on your California Roll. I don't know why but it is simply not hot when you put it in the cheese; it's just the most lovely flavor. My least spicy friends love it, really. And, as I said, it's my most favorite; and I like all cheese. Okay, leave the Wasabi out if you must.
Alrighty, here's what you do:
IN THE MORNING after milking put 1 1/2 gallons of milk in a stainless steel pot. Put that pot in a slightly wider pot (or the sink) with either warm or cold water, whichever is needed to bring the milk to 80 degrees f. This will only take a couple minutes. At 80 degrees sprinkle the culture on the top of the milk and let it soak in for a couple minutes. Meanwhile drop 4 drops of rennet into 1/4 cup cool water and stir in. Stir the rennet and water into the milk. Stir for at least a minute using an up and down motion. The culture and rennet need to be well mixed with the milk.
Put the lid on the pot and set it out of the way for 8 - 12 hours. How easy is that?
AFTER DINNER is all cleaned up in the evening take the lid off the pot and cut the curds. Cut about one inch curds in each direction vertically and then horizontally. I just use a stainless steel knife, it works fine. Stir the curds gently a few times and let them rest a couple minutes while you get your straining stuff together.
My favorite cheese is Chevre. It makes me so happy on a pizza with a bunch of spinach from the garden, or crumbled on my salad. For me, it is also the easiest to make. Sure there's 30 minute Mozzarella, and farm-style cheese (Paneer) with just milk and lemon juice. But even those require heating to just the right temperature and, well, standing around in the kitchen making a mess for at least an hour. I do love them, but my favorite cheese to make and to eat is Wasabi Chevre.
Making Chevre fits just right into my daily schedule. Each step is quick and easy, so while it takes a couple days from start to finish, it feels like you're hardly doing anything and like magic, there it is!
Here's my recipe and how I put it together:
1 1/2 gallons fresh raw goat milk
1/4 tsp dry Chevre culture
4 drops vegetable rennet
1/4 cup water
2 tsp salt
2 TBS Wasabi from the squeeze tube
I know, Wasabi?! Yeah, the stuff that comes flaming out your nose when you put the tiniest dab on your California Roll. I don't know why but it is simply not hot when you put it in the cheese; it's just the most lovely flavor. My least spicy friends love it, really. And, as I said, it's my most favorite; and I like all cheese. Okay, leave the Wasabi out if you must.
Alrighty, here's what you do:
IN THE MORNING after milking put 1 1/2 gallons of milk in a stainless steel pot. Put that pot in a slightly wider pot (or the sink) with either warm or cold water, whichever is needed to bring the milk to 80 degrees f. This will only take a couple minutes. At 80 degrees sprinkle the culture on the top of the milk and let it soak in for a couple minutes. Meanwhile drop 4 drops of rennet into 1/4 cup cool water and stir in. Stir the rennet and water into the milk. Stir for at least a minute using an up and down motion. The culture and rennet need to be well mixed with the milk.
Put the lid on the pot and set it out of the way for 8 - 12 hours. How easy is that?
AFTER DINNER is all cleaned up in the evening take the lid off the pot and cut the curds. Cut about one inch curds in each direction vertically and then horizontally. I just use a stainless steel knife, it works fine. Stir the curds gently a few times and let them rest a couple minutes while you get your straining stuff together.
Line a colander with butter muslin (or several layers of cheesecloth, or one of those jelly straining bags from Ace Hardware) and set the colander over a bowl. Use a slotted ladle to spoon half of the curds onto the butter muslin, you might have to pour the whey from the bowl into a jar if it reaches the bottom of the colander. When half the curds are in the muslin tie up the corners and hang it so the whey can drain into a jar or a bowl. Do the same thing with the other half of the curds. Leave the curds to hang and drain overnight. Nighty night, sleep tight.
IN THE MORNING, when it fits into your schedule, before or after milking, take the drained curds (it's cheese now!) out of the muslin and put them in a fairly large bowl. Stir them up with a fork mixing the dryer outer layer with the moister middle. Sprinkle the salt over the cheese and stir it in. Add the Wasabi and stir it in. Mash the cheese into molds, put a bit of weight on top and let them drain for 2 - 4 hours in a cool place.
You can see in the photo below the little jars with water set on top of the cheese as weights.
You can see in the photo below the little jars with water set on top of the cheese as weights.
In the winter I put them in my special "cave" plastic container with drain holes in the bottom and air holes in the top in my cistern house (it stays about 50 degrees in there). In the summer I put one or two of those frozen cooler thingies in my plastic container cave and set it in the sink the stay cool and drain. Adding the salt and keeping the cheese cooler slows the culture growth way down. If you would like your cheese super tangy Chevrey, don't worry about keeping it cool at this point. At lunch time turn the molds upside down and let them drain 2 - 4 hours in your cool place.
Around dinner time take the cheeses from the molds. Aren't they beautiful!! Fantastic job. Wrap them in plastic and refrigerate. Be sure to eat some right away while you watch Netflix, or take them to a party and impress all your friends. Whatever you do with them, someone's gonna love them!
If you're lucky you live close to a cheese making supply source and can go shopping in person, get advice, look at the different supplies. If you're like me and live way far away from that sort of shopping you can find great sources online. A couple of my favorite places to get things like cultures and rennet as well as great recipes and advice are Hoegger Supply, http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/xcart/Cheese-Making/, and New England Cheese Making Supply Co., http://www.cheesemaking.com/. Check 'em out!
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