Cheese-o-mania

I have been in overdrive on the Chèvre production lately. I am making about 3 pounds of chèvre a week right now. I will continue on this pace until the last week of August. After that, a 2 month break and I start into bloomed rind, aged, cheeses in November. Looking forward to that.

Beautiful Goats

The goats now know that when I come to visit, I am bringing them veggie ends, peels and scrap food. Even though they are hanging out in the shade, they come running across the field with some encouragement and a flash of food!

Back at it..

Yesterday I started a batch of chèvre. I used the same recipe as last time, but this time I was hoping that I would be able to use the leftover whey to make some ricotta. The chèvre turned out great, but the ricotta did not. I am thinking that there may not be enough milk solids and proteins left in the whey of the goat milk to accommodate ricotta. I did get some fine curds but they were really fine...too fine to make anything substantial from. In fact, they went through 4 layers of cheese cloth.

So...for now...I have about 2 pounds of chèvre and no ricotta this time. I am going to drain the chèvre for an extra long time so that I get a denser product. I'll see what I have whenever I get home from work tonight. 

Looking forward to it....yum.

This town is too hot

Terry Hall, from The Specials, said it well. With heat in the 90s and no air conditioning, it is just too damn hot to make cheese this week. We are calling for cooler temps in the coming week, so I will be back at it then.

Ricotta success

Finally some successful ricotta...I just used a simple vinegar acid ricotta recipe this time. Next time, I am going to use the whey after I make chèvre to see if I can squeak out the ricotta from it.

Here is a picture. It looks gross in the pot, all curdled,  but after, you will see the final product.

The final product....

What is working

While I cross my fingers for some successful ricotta, I still have to celebrate some of the successes I have achieved.

My chèvre has consistently turned out excellent. I am using Flor Dancia as the culture, along with 1/4 teaspoon of calcium chloride, a couple of drops of double-strength vegetable rennet and a skewer tip or two of lipase powder (about 1/16 teaspoon). This all sits for a good 18 hours at 72 degrees. I find that after that long, the curd is set...very set...almost overset, as it is starting to develop cracks. That said, it is full of animal goaty goodness. I drain off a good chunk of the whey and then drain the curds in cloth for a good 10 hours or so. Oh...and I add about a teaspoon of salt to the curd at this time. I am going light on the salt and may increase it in my next batch so that the tang of the cheese comes out better.

Another crack at ricotta

Well....tonight I am going to attempt another try at ricotta. I am going to throw away all of my thoughts up to this point and start anew. I think that I am over-thinking the whole thing. Today will just a a simple ricotta. We'll see.

Until that time...here is another great picture of the goats.