Double Cream Goat Cheese

Whew! It's been a busy week so far! But it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow so maybe I'll get a chance to get caught up on some inside work. Right now dairy and gardening have been consuming my life. (In a good way though) And I've been trying to revolve our meals around the spring abundance.

I'm so excited to share that I've finally perfected our goat cheese recipe. And it falls back to my standard cooking motto...when all else fails...add FAT! Or in this case cream. The goat cheeses I've made in the past were just sort of bleh! I mean...not terrible but nothing to write home about. They lacked that goat-y zing that makes goat cheese taste like goat cheese, and they were dry, especially after they'd been refrigerated...almost to the point of squeaky curds. 

I've been separating 2 or so gallons almost every other day into cream for butter and other products. So I decided to try a goat cheese with half cream, half whole milk. Lemme tell you! Whhooowheee! This is some good goat cheese! It's the first time I've made goat cheese that tastes better than something you'd buy at the store.

It's super creamy and because the milk was initially heated to 90 degrees to be separated, that warmth has brought out a delicious goat tang.

Making this goat cheese is just about as easy as it gets. I heated equal parts of goat cream (For more information about separating the cream from goats milk click here, Goat Butter)and whole milk to 180 degrees in a pot on the stove. Then I drizzled in enough apple cider vinegar to separate the curds. You don't need much. I just glug a little at a time until the curds separate. Then I pour it through a sieve lined with butter muslin to collect the curds. Let it sit until it dries out a bit and salt to taste with cheese salt add herbs, pepper whatever you like!

Holy Cheese! Our First Swiss Tasting

Our first wheel of goat's milk Swiss cheese was ready for tasting last night. The three months it takes to age fell roughly around Christmas.

We toasted the occasion with a glass of Cranberry wine made from the orchard down the road. And a good chunk of crusty wheat bread, buttered with salt and pepper. 

The big drum-role was the first slice...would it have holes the way a proper Swiss should? (Side note: contrary to what the photo shows, Zach's hands are clean, and washed several times. This is what being a blacksmith will do to you.)

Yay for holy cheese! 

Overall I give out first go at a Swiss cheese a B-.

The success of the holes got extra points because we were so excited to see if it would work, and the flavor was just as we expected, a goat-y, Swiss flavor. But the texture was a bit dry. This has been a re-occurring problem with all our cheeses. They tend to be over rhined, except for the center, which stays more consistent to the goal cheese texture. You can see it in the photo how the center is creamier looking.

I'm thinking it might have to do with the humidity level in our cheese cave. "Cheese cave" might sounds fancy, but it's really just a mini fridge set to 52 degrees. We decreased the humidity because our Parmesan was molding a bit heavily. (Which sounds gross but is acceptable in cheese aging) We would wipe the wheel down with vinegar once a week to remove the mold, but it started spreading to other wheels, like the Cheddar and Swiss and on the walls of the cave.

The cheese is a constant work in progress. It's a slow process that practices lots of patients...a virtue I personally need to hone. We try to document in detail each batch so we can look back months later to see what we can improve on. Many times it feels more like a science experiment than a food item.       

Waxing the Cheddar

Last night Zach and I attempted out first wheel of goat's milk Parmesan. It's still pressing in the cheese press, and in two more hours I will make a salt brine and begin to brine the wheel. I'm particularly excited about this cheese. Parmesan is one of my favorite cheeses, and one of the most expensive to purchase. A good Parmesan Reggiano can run $17.00 a pound or more. And while I only use this type of cheese for special occasions, I wouldn't mind a homemade version available more often. The Parmesan has to age for 10 months or more. It will be a test of patience, but an act of love. Parmesan needs to be cared for throughout the aging process. It must be turned daily and then weekly, wiped of any mold buildup, and kept at the precise temperature and humidity in our cheese cave.

Our cheese cave is small refrigerator that our friend gave us to keep our extra eggs in. The eggs have since been replaced by 4 wheels of cheese, three wheels of cheddar and tomorrow, the Parmesan. Each of the wheels of cheddar have been made with different strengths of lipase, an enzyme that makes cheese taste "cheesy". We are experimenting to see which flavor we prefer. It's difficult to predict the flavors we will be tasting because a lot of the recipes we're using are meant for cows milk, so we have to factor in the "goaty" flavor which will come out with age. Zach and I like really strong cheese. Our favorite store bought cheese is an extra sharp, 12 year old cheddar made in Pinconning, Michigan. It is strong enough to curl your hair but oh so delicious! We know that our cheddar won't bite like the 12 year old sharp, but we're going for potency.

Because we have different types and flavors of cheese all aging in the same cave, we thought it would be a good idea to wax the cheese that is able to be waxed to prevent some of the flavors from transitioning to other wheels. Not all cheese can be waxed, Parmesan for example, creates its own rind over time so waxing isn't an option.

For the cheese wax, we had the choice of black, red or a mustard yellow. Zach and I both decided that "red" for some reason looked the most traditional.

We melted out cheese brick in a small crock pot that is now designated for cheese wax. We also purchased a natural hog bristle pastry brush to paint on the melted wax.

We did two light coatings, and let them dry. Then we tied a label on each wheel with the date, type of cheese, and the lipase information.

I love how the cheeses are stacking up in our little cave. Cheese is one of my favorite foods and we eat a lot of it. I am so excited that in a few months time we should have a constant supply coming from our farm. Cheese making is time consuming, but sort of addicting. If we're this enthusiastic and we haven't even tasted our first wheel, I can't imagine how we'll be once we get to enjoy the benefits of our labors. Hopefully, it's delicious and not a moldy, sour debacle! Only time will tell.  

Linking with Homestead Revival   
And The Coop Hop
           

Goats Milk Ricotta

Ricotta made from whey

 Last night we made a second cheddar, this time using lipase to create a stronger flavor.

As promised from my last post, Goat's Milk Cheddar, Our First Hard Cheese, here are some of the photos from our "weight system", The Leaning Tower of ...wait for it...Cheeza! Ha! (Please don't unsubscribe, I'll try to stop...but it's a problem I have, over use of "cheesy" puns...oh no...I did it again...)

The press with 30 pounds

Then 50 pounds

Inside the pot, every dumbbell we own

Then filled with water, about 50 pounds total

 Anyway, after we made the cheese, we had two gallons of whey (which we stupidly THREW AWAY last time). I cringe now at the thought. Especially after I read all the health benefits of using whey in cooking, feeding it to your dogs, chickens, baking bread, or...best of all...making this delicious Ricotta.

Again, the recipe comes from the Ricki Carroll book Home Cheese Making.

Super, super simple recipe, with absolutely divine results. We didn't use the "Goats Milk Ricotta" recipe because we had used all of Esther's milk for the cheddar and it calls for additional milk to be added to the whey. I wanted cream for coffee in the morning. (priorities right?) So we used the "Ricotta From Heaven" recipe, and let me tell you, it is aptly named.

To make this ricotta, we simply heated the whey until it got an opaque film on the top, about 30 to 40 minutes. Ricky Carroll calls it a "foam" but ours never really appeared that way. (Maybe we did it wrong, but it was so good, I'd do it this way again!)

Then we strained it through a cheese bag.

I salted it, thought the recipe doesn't call for salt, and we were eating it warm by the spoonful. Oh my gosh, hands down BEST ricotta I have ever had!

I kept the whey yet again, and I am planning on feeding it to the chickens. Look for a future Community Chicken's post on whey and chickens.    

More Cheese photos below.

Straining the curd

The curds

salting the curd

pouring the curds into the cheesecloth

Prepping the mold with wax paper

the cheese goes into the mold

all the way down

then the top block of the press

we use a mason jar as a spacer

unveiling the cheese to be turned and re-dressed
 

Goats Milk Cheddar, Our first Hard Cheese

I thought I would take you through the process of how we made our goats milk cheddar. This is the original recipe from the Ricki Carroll book Home Cheese Making. As I discussed in yesterday's post, Contemplating Flavor for our Goats Milk Cheddar, we are saving Esther's milk and when we get 2 gallons we're going to try another batch this time using lipase to enhance the flavor.

This is our make-shift cheese mold that Zach whipped together with some PVC pipe, scrap wood and some long bolts.

He's promised to write a blog with more details as to how he put it together.

The PVC isn't a traditional cheese wheel size, but it worked so far. We also had to use unconventional methods for adding weight to the press. 50 pounds got interesting, but I'll get to that later. 

We began by measuring out two gallons of goats milk.

I diluted the rennet in water.

We heated the milk to 85 degrees in a sink full of hot water. We found that using two thermometers helped regulate this process easily. We kept one thermometer in the water bath, and another in the milk. We would adjust the temperature of the water by adding hot water, and removing the cooled water with a measuring cup. If we kept the water around 104 degrees, the cheese stayed near 85 degrees. Heat must have been lost through the transfer through the pot, and by evaporating in the air. I also had the window open and it was a cool breezy night. I made notes as we went to help for next time.

When the milk was at 85 degrees we added the starter and let it set for 30 minutes.

Then we added the calcium chloride, which isn't in the recipe, but goats milk has a fine delicate curd and the calcium chloride helps to strengthen the curd. We figured, since we were beginners we needed all the strength we could get, ha!

Then, in goes the rennet. We stirred it with an "up and down motion" as described in the book. This was the fun part because this is where the curds start to separate and you really feel like you're making cheese!!! We kept it at 85 for one hour. Which sounds like a chore, but it went by fast. I sat by the sink baby sitting the thermometers, adding hot water, taking water out and reading some of the introduction sections in the Cheese Making book.

Then it was time to cut the curds. This was a little difficult. I think maybe less calcium chloride next time. The book said 1/2 inch, but our cubes were nowhere near perfect. But we did the best and hoped it would be ok.

Then we slowly heated the curds to 95 degrees and kept it at this temp for 45 minutes. The book instructs to raise the temp "no higher than 2 degrees every 5 minutes" we got it pretty close.

We strained the whey, salted the curds, wrapped them in cheesecloth and placed them in the PVC pipe.

The first weight increment is 20 pounds, then 30 then 50 pounds. The big question was what would we use for weights? We decided that strategically balanced dumbbells in a 4 gallon pot of water worked fine. Although, no one was allowed near the counter until the cheese had pressed overnight, for fear of toppling over the whole menagerie. I forgot to take a photo of the "tower" I'll try to remember next time we make cheese.

After the cheddar sat in the press overnight, I took it out and salted the outside. It sat for another day and was salted again. Now it's in our mini fridge at 52 degrees to age for at least 3 months. I'll be sure to let you know how it went. Cheese making isn't one of those things where you experience instant satisfaction, but we're hoping that it will be worth the wait!

Two years ago our friends Nate and Stacey shared a guest blog with us about how they made a delicious cow's milk Cobblestone Cheddar, check it out by clicking here! Nate and Stacey's Cobblestone Cheddar 

Contemplating Flavor for our Goats Milk Cheddar

Zach and I made our second cheese the other night using the milk from our Alpine goat Esther. The first cheese we made was a simple goat cheese made by heating the milk to 180 degrees and separating the curd with apple cider vinegar, then you drain the whey and salt the cheese. Very simple, (I wrote a post, Making Goat Cheese a couple of years back. It was before we got our dairy goats, but it still has some valuable info). The results were...ok. Esther's milk does not have a "goat-y" flavor at all, which we were glad about in drinking milk, butter, cream etc, but a little disappointed in cheese making. I like goat cheese because of that zing or tang. I've bought goats milk from the grocery store and made goat cheese and it has a much goat-y-er (is that a word?) flavor. Her milk is very cow's milk tasting, sweet and buttery. For those of you who have never tasted goat's milk or goat's cheese, the best way I can describe the flavor I'm after is a sort of zing that reminds me of the after taste in a good plain Greek yogurt, or maybe sour cream. It kinda gets you on the back of the tongue with a touch of dryness almost like in a dry wine.

There are many factors that affect the flavor of milk and cheese. One being the breed of goat. Esther is an Alpine, which as far as I've learned, her milk is supposed to have a lower butterfat content and a mild to medium goat flavor. Nubians have a high butterfat and the milk is supposed to be the sweetest and most cow like, but they don't produce as much as an Alpine and don't milk as long. Nubians are the Jersey cows of the goat world. Our plan with Esther was to use her milk for cheese making, and the Nubian milk for butter and drinking milk. Another factor is the health of the goat, what is in the goat's feed, the quality of hay and grain.

Beyond the goat, the next factor in milk flavor is how the milk is handled. The longer it takes to cool the milk the more goat flavor you will taste. Since we're new at this, we've been chilling the milk as fast as possible for sanitary reasons. I chill the milking pail and milk her right into the cold vessel. Then the milk is strained into a chilled glass jar, placed in the freezer for an hour, and then transferred to the fridge. If I loosened up on the chill factor, it might give us more of a goat flavor, but until I learn more about bacteria, souring and safety, I'm sticking to the cold.

We've been doing some research about the cultures and additives you can use in the cheese making process to bring out certain flavors. One of these additives is lipase. Lipase is a natural enzyme used to make cheese more flavorful. In the recipe we used found in the Ricky Carrol book Home Cheese Making, the goat's milk cheddar doesn't call for lipase. We decided to make the first cheese according to her recipe, in hope that in aging the cheese, it might acquire a more tangy flavor. We almost have another 2 gallons collected from the weekend milking, so we plan on making another batch, this time adding lipase. After we age the cheese for three months, we'll do a taste test and see which one we like best.

I'm going to be sharing our cheese making process in my next post.  

Cheese Please! Beekman 1802 Blaak

It's been a while since I did a cheese post. Our latest treasure is a whole wheel of Beekman 1802 Blaak. We started watching The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green last winter. We had a terrible case of Spring fever and their quirky television show about goat farming was a welcomed breath of fresh air. Side Note: Why aren't there more TV shows about farming? Now I know why we gave up TV all together...anyway...

I've since read Josh's book The Bucolic Plague, the story of how the boys purchased Beekman Mansion and continuously attempt to turn it into a self sufficient farm.

They own and run a mercantile store front in Sharon Springs, NY where you can find fine soaps, jellies and sauces, hand forged items, and delicate hand stitched pillows and towels. But best of all, their cheese!

Their cheese is sold by the wheel only, and is coated in an ash rind that they rub on by hand. The cheese is made in small batches, which makes it even more quaint and wonderful! It's a delicious blend of 60% goat and 40% cow. But don't count on ordering a wheel and serving on this weekend's cheese platter. Blaak is in such high demand that I was put on a waiting list and e-mailed when our wheel was ready. But it was WELL worth the wait.

It has great texture and flavor, has a mild goat taste but is still tangy and delicious. I thought that the ash rind would give it a smoked taste but the flavor is very mild.

We also ordered a jar of their Blaak Onion Jam which is so unique! It is blended with a balsamic vinegar (reduction I think) and would be great on a pork roast, (in my opinion).

Wish I could give you all a sample!