http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x1485Oh my.
This bonfire started a couple of months ago, but it's still burning.
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:03 PM
Original message
I am making goat cheese this week!
My neighbor has a nanny goat that is now producing milk. She has never made any kind of cheese so she asked for my help. I have made mozzarella cheese, yogurt, creme fraiche, etc. I have all the things I need to make goat cheese so I plan on making it sometime this week.
She gave me some milk to take home. I pasteurized the milk (to be safe) and since I won't have time to make cheese until later this week, I drank it and used it in my cereal. Oh, how wonderful this tastes! It has a 1/2 inch of cream floating on the top. I may never drink any other type of milk again. It sure beats any organic cow's milk I can buy in the store and all of that kind is ultra-pasteurized so you can't make cheese with it.
Will report on my results later.
texastoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
1. I dug out my herb bed and have a bunch of herbs that would taste just dandy with that cheese. My sister had a dairy for a while, and there is nothing better than fresh milk with the cream on top. Sounds wonderful!
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. I plan to add Herbes de Provence to a batch or two.
MADem (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
2. I grew up on that stuff--it makes great ice cream, FWIW.
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:14 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Yum, ice cream
I will definitely be trying that this summer. Thanks.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Mon Mar-24-08 04:21 PM
Response to Original message
5. Some people find the flavor objectionable but goat's milk is great stuff for making things like kefir and yogurt, as well as chevre (goat cheese).
I never learned to drink milk thanks to an early intolerance to lactose. However, I can tolerate it in all 3 forms above and have done so when I had access to it right out of the goat.
In fact, there's little I like better than kefir buzzed with fresh strawberries and a little light honey like orange blossom or alfalfa.
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Some people probably tried the stuff in the grocery store.
I tried goats milk from Whole Foods and was kinda turned off by the taste but fresh (like all things fresh) tastes totally different.
MADem (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:36 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Yep--it is COMPLETELY different. Fresh as a daisy and it is wonderful.
I've gotta say, too, back in the day, the stuff I got wasn't pasteurized (we were not in the US) and it was straight outta the goat. Didn't kill us, though!
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:46 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. I would drink it raw but..
I have never pasteurized anything so I thought I would give it a try. Pretty easy and if we decide to sell it we will have to pasteurize it. I had a cow dairy a mile from my house many years ago and got raw from them and never pasteurized it. I wish I had been in the cheese making mode then.
MADem (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-24-08 04:49 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. I wouldn't recommend it, nowadays--you're right to pasteurize in this day and age.
Ya just never know.
It didn't kill us, though, but that was in the day of better immune systems and none of these superbugs!
newfie11 (265 posts) Tue Mar-25-08 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #5
11. All it takes to change the flavor is one little hair falling in the milk. Then you can tell it's goat milk. We had American Alpines. They gave 1 gallon a day and our kids (children not baby goats) could not tell if it was cow or goat. Some breeds have a richer butterfat in the milk like Jersey vs Holstein.
BTW it was always unpasteurized. But you need to know the health of your animals and be super clean.
Never had any problems.
newfie11 (265 posts) Tue Mar-25-08 09:52 PM
Response to Original message
10. How did you get the cream to float on top with goat milk
All the years we had our own goats the milk never separated from cream. When I looked up info it said goat milk is naturally homogenized. What is your secret?
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-26-08 01:48 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. The cream did not seperate until I pasteurized it
I put the goat's milk in a stainless steel bowl and put the bowl in a pot of water. I got the temperature of the milk to 145 degrees F, and kept it there for 30 minutes. Then I cooled it to 40 degrees F. in the sink filled with ice water. Poured it my milk bottles and the next morning when I needed some for my cereal, I noticed the layer of cream. The goats where I get my milk are Nubians.
You mean I did something that is not supposed to happen? Wow! The cream is so sweet.
newfie11 (265 posts) Wed Mar-26-08 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Well congratulations
We had goats for 14 years and I was never able to separate the cream. I was told I would need to buy a separator for that. Wish I had known your method then. I was used to fresh cows milk where we milked and put in the fridge. When it cooled (from the cow) the cream separated.
sazemisery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-26-08 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. I wish it were MY method
I didn't know goat's milk wouldn't separate! I only pasteurized it 'cause if I intend to sell it it would have to be pasteurized. I'll be interested to see if it happens again.
hollowdweller (1000+ posts) Tue Jun-03-08 08:14 PM
Response to Reply #13
16. Usually it goes off before it separates.
If I want to let it separate naturally I always pasteurize first. But I have a cream separator anyway. An old Delaval table top.
hollowdweller (1000+ posts) Tue Jun-03-08 08:11 PM
Response to Original message
15. Goat Cheese Rocks! I've raised Saanens for 20 years
Make cheese all the time. Yes pasteurize it. In warm weather it is hard to avoid contamination due to the yeast and stuff in the air. Esp if you do not have air conditioning.
I dunno.
All that time I spent wandering around the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants, I ate a lot of home-made cheese, much of it ostensibly goat-cheese.
I think the primitives are trying to replicate "peasant cooking."
It's okay and all that, but really, it's just easier to pick up a package of cheese at the grocery store.
