Fromage De Chevre (Goats Milk Cheese)
Introduction: Fromage De Chevre (Goats Milk Cheese)
Cheese making is a fun and rewarding hobby! It can take a bit of time to complete a recipe, and in my own experience there is a lot of trial and error. From what I have found Chevre is one of the easier and less time consuming recipes. There is no ageing time as there is with other cheeses and it has lots of uses! If someone was interested in beginning to learn how to make cheese I would say (in my opinion) this is probably the best place to start. A lot of the techniques that are involved in most traditional cheese recipes are employed here but this recipe is a little more forgiving than others.
Step 1: Gather the Necessary Equipment and Clean.
For this recipe you will need the following pieces of equipment.
* A pot that can hold 1 gallon of liquid with some extra space.
* Colander, A larger one is helpful but if you are creative and patient you can make a smaller one work too.
* A good thermometer, I like to use one that can attach to the pot.
* Ladle
* Spatula
* Cheese clothe or butter muslin
* Misc. measuring devices
Once you have gathered everything it is important to clean everything very well. I like to place everything I can in the pot with a little water and boil it for 5-10 minutes. I also like to set up a place to place my utensils that has also been sanitized. For this I will use a plate I spray down with star-san, but white distilled vinegar will work as well. For equipment that cannot be boiled (like the thermometer) I spray them down with star-san or wipe them with vinegar.
By cleaning and sanitizing you are Lessening the chances of something contaminating your cheese. Contamination can cause off flavors and even ruin the entire batch. When making cheeses that are aged this can be very frustrating as you may not know you have a problem until you are a couple weeks or even months into the aging process.
Step 2: Gather Required Ingredients
There are not many ingredients required for this recipe but some of them can be tricky to find locally. I have had some luck at my local brewing store but for the most part I have had to order my cultures online. New England Cheese making is a good place to order from in my experience.
* 1 Gallon of goats milk. 255
This is important, it needs to be as fresh as possible and it cannot be ultra-pasteurized. I live in an area where the only goats milk I can find is ultra-pasteurized. I have tried it and and it does not work! Standard pasteurized milk will work, you will also want to make sure that it is not homogenized. If using un-pasteurized milk do so at your own risk and make sure you know the dangers that can arise if not done properly.
* 1/8tsp of Flora Danica Cheese culture
* 1/8tsp of Calcium Chloride diluted in 1/8 cup cold unchlorinated water. This is optional but helps the milk coagulate when using pasteurized milk.
* 2 Drops of double strength rennet diluted in 1/8 cup cold unchlorinated water. I use vegetarian rennet but animal rennet should return the same result.
* Salt. Cheese salt is probably the best salt to use for this but I use kosher. As long as the only ingredient listed is salt it should work.
It is really important to use unchlorinated water and pure salt. If your water has chlorine in it or if your salt contains iodine this can kill the cheese culture and the recipe will not work.
Step 3: Heat the Milk
Pour the milk into your pot, add the thermometer and heat, slowly! I like to give the milk a good shake before pouring to make sure any cream hasn't separated. Place on low heat and aim for a temperature of 86 Fahrenheit (30C), rushing this step can result in scorched milk. It is ok if your temperature goes a little over just turn off the heat and wait for it to come back down. If its too hot it will kill the culture. Once it reaches the desired temp (this took about 30-40 mins for me) remove from heat.
Step 4: Add the Culture
Sprinkle the culture on top of your milk and let it rehydrate for 3-5 minutes. After it has rehydrated use the ladle in an up and down motion to gently stir the culture into the milk for about 2-5 minuets or until you see no traces of the culture.
Some cheese calls for a ripening time after you add the culture, this is not necessary for chevre and will be done in later steps. 255