We’ve been getting goat’s milk from St. John’s Creamery in Everett every few weeks. So far I’ve made a chevre-type cheese several times and been very impressed with how simple it is to make and how fresh and clean it tastes.
This last round I made using a flora danica culture that I purchased from cheesemaking.com. I purchased that particular culture rather than their standard chevre culture because I could incubate a mother culture with it and hopefully keep it alive for at least 3 years, rather than using the small but spendy packs of dried culture. If you plan to make it frequently this makes it much more affordable, since goat’s milk is pretty spendy already. If you have access to fresh goat’s milk that makes it even more affordable.
This cheese gets drier the longer it sets in the mold so you can take it out of the mold at any point and determine the consistency that way. I like to unmold the cheese when it is still slightly moist and just beginning to flake. It’s great mixed with herbs as a dip, crumbled in salads, spread on polenta or wild greens, on crostini or pizza, or baked into quiche.
You can purchase chevre molds or use individual yogurt containers with holes poked in the sides so the whey can drain out as the cheese sets up. For this recipe you will need 3 molds, one cookie rack and one jelly roll pan, a nice large stainless steel saucepan, dairy or candy thermometer, and a wooden spoon for stirring.
You will also need 1 ounce of prepared starter (or packet of direct-set starter), 1 drop of liquid rennet, and 1/2 gallon of goats milk. I used raw goat’s milk.
Heat the milk in the range of 75 – 85 degrees
Stir in the starter
Dilute the tiniest possible drop of rennet in 4 tablespoons of filtered water
Gently stir for about a minute
Let the mixture sit covered for 12 – 24 hours depending on room temperature, until it coagulates
Place the cookie rack over a jelly roll pan and put the molds on the cookie rack
Scoop the curds into the molds
Let them drain for several days until they have reached your desired texture
Unmold them and sprinkle herbs and/or salt on the outside. The herbs will be absorbed into the cheese
One local shop that I have not been to since our serious homebrew days is The Cellar Homebrew in Shoreline. I noticed online that they also carry some cheesemaking supplies, although I have not been in to see exactly what. If it’s convenient for you that would be a great place to start gathering some cheesemaking supplies without spending money on shipping and to support a local business in the process.
Happy cheesemaking!
4 responses so far ↓
1 Soft Goat Cheese « Sustainable Eats // Dec 27, 2009 at 3:33 am
[...] the rest of the entry at the new [...]
2 Making Whey « Sustainable Eats // Dec 27, 2009 at 3:36 am
[...] the rest of the entry at the new blog… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)101 Things to do With [...]
3 Saving Money by Eating Locally // Jan 10, 2010 at 2:54 pm
[...] cheese where you get a high cheese to milk ratio with a short waiting period. Mozzarella, feta and chevre are three such cheeses and they are very gratifying to [...]
4 Smashing “Fun”draisers & a New Giveaway // May 2, 2010 at 10:21 pm
[...] for our local Seattle Urban Farmers Coop which both happened over the weekend. I demonstrated chevre, made cajeta and goat’s milk soap, baked goat cheese pizzas with dried tomatoes from my 2009 [...]
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