For those of you who have been somewhat disturbed by my move into the domestic realm, this post might be difficult for you.
If you are even more disturbed by the fact that I am a rural housewife at the moment, then you should definitely just skip this post altogether.
Nate came home on Friday with this:
It is about 3/4 of a gallon of goat's milk.
A former volunteer of Nate's keeps goats now and they had a batch of milk ready. So we bought some. We made goat cheese with it yesterday evening. They make goat cheese all the time at the ranch so Nate was somewhat familiar process, at least familiar enough with it to know that we could handle it. It was pretty simple.
I took some process pics.
We started with the milk:
You need an instant read thermometer:
We heated the milk over medium heat to 180 degrees, stirring the whole time:
If you are even more disturbed by the fact that I am a rural housewife at the moment, then you should definitely just skip this post altogether.
Nate came home on Friday with this:
It is about 3/4 of a gallon of goat's milk.A former volunteer of Nate's keeps goats now and they had a batch of milk ready. So we bought some. We made goat cheese with it yesterday evening. They make goat cheese all the time at the ranch so Nate was somewhat familiar process, at least familiar enough with it to know that we could handle it. It was pretty simple.
I took some process pics.
We started with the milk:
You need an instant read thermometer:
We heated the milk over medium heat to 180 degrees, stirring the whole time:
for those of you not in the biz, this is called pasteurization :)After it heats to the prescribed temperature, we take it off the heat, and add the juice of two lemons:
After stirring it for 90 seconds, we added some salt, dissolved it, and let it sit for a few minutes:
We layered four sheets of cheese cloth in a colander over a bowl and ladled the curds and whey into the colander.
Kitty, do you want the leftover whey?
Not interested? Ok, moving on.We put it in the fridge over night and it looked like this.
I scooped it out of the cheese cloth this afternoon and put it into a bowl.
We got 2 cups of cheese out of the deal. I don't know if this is a normal yield for the amount of milk we had, but it seems like plenty of goat cheese.(I can't remember exactly which method we used for this, but we looked at these websites. Here, here, here, and here.)
People say to let it age for a bit, just a day or two. When we go to use it I think we will mix in some more seasonings and herbs.
I'll let you know how we eat this, but I'm thinking on salads with beets for me, and something else for Nate (he doesn't like beets, sad for him not for me).
Some things I learned:
Miss Muffet must have had quite a stomach, I've seen curds and whey now, and blech.
Cheesecloth catches more than you think it will.
I thought the kitty would like the whey, I was wrong.
I hope there's some left when I get there. :)
ReplyDeleteDid you put "kidding" because of the goats?
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm making yogurt right this very minute! Too bad it doesn't make curds, I love eating them. I second your blech on whey, though, although I do sneak that into soups when I get the chance. Protein!
ReplyDeleteLove,
an urban housewife
PS I am jealous of your milk supply! Never done that before, and our resident goat population is, um, sparse.
ReplyDeleteSean: yes, because of the goats.
ReplyDeleteSula: I forgot about your dairy knowledge when I wrote this! I did read that about the whey, that you can put it in things as a protein supplement. I wonder how long it keeps. Our resident goat population is, prolific.
Molly, I am finding your blog quite inspiring. Your domesticity may be blooming now, but you've been preparing for this role for a long time. Thanks for sharing your adventures and know that many of us wish we could join you.
ReplyDelete