Soft Cheese Making 101

Saturday was a great day at Adobe Farm in Weatherford, Texas (www.adobe-farm.com and www.adobefarm.wordpress.com). To begin our day Ken reviewed some of his favorite books on Cheese making. He has been making cheese for more than five years, and makes numerous types of cheeses. Although he started cheese making as "just another hobby", he now makes all types of cheeses, and has a dedicated fridge for his aging collection! Today we would be making Chèvre, also known as Goat Cheese, Mozzarella, Ricotta and Butter! 

     

Ken's books on cheese making

Making Chèvre Cheese. It was so easy we were done in minutes! You warm up a gallon of unpasteurized goats milk in a stainless steel pot to 86 degrees, add the Chèvre starter, stir gently and leave at room temperature (68-72 degrees) for 12 hours, drain-with good cheese cloth and strainer over a stainless steel pot in the refrigerator. You can shape into a log, if you prefer. That's all there is to it! Amazingly simple. 

Making Mozzarella Cheese. Another fairly simple cheese is homemade Mozzarella. This cheese has several steps so I won't get into all the details, but if you want the recipes please leave me a comment below and I will get them to you. Basically we added citric acid powder to the cold milk, heated it to 88 degrees, removed from heat, added liquid vegetable rennet. We let it rest for about 30 minutes until a white curd formed and separated from the whey. [Do not discard the whey!] See the firmness in the photo below.

The milk is warmed to 88 degrees and adding rennet

We reheated the curds and whey to 140 degrees (from a childhood verse). Then we separated the cheese into two even balls. The next step is to begin stretching the warm cheese, pressing the whey out of cheese and pulling it into 2 inch thick ropes and replacing back into the whey. When the cheese won't pull easily, it is too cold - so place back into the warm whey for a minute or two, and then remove it and begin squeezing it and pulling it again. This process took about 10-15 minutes. Your cheese is done when we have a shiny, smooth, soft ball of cheese. 

Once the cheese was ready, we removed the balls of mozzarella from the warm whey and rolled them into special cheese making salt, see providers on bottom of blog. If the cheese gets too cold it will not hold the salt. You may need to replace into the warm whey for the salt to fully mix into the cheese. 

The mozzarella can be enjoyed warm, or placed into a plastic container in the refrigerator to be chilled. It should be consumed within a week. 

Making Ricotta Cheese. One thing I love about making mozzarella cheese is that the left over whey can be used immediately and made into Ricotta cheese. Please note: You can not wait for this process, it must be done right after your mozzarella cheese is removed. Place the warm whey into your stainless steal pot and bring to a boil, add 1/3 cup vinegar (white or apple-cider), remove from heat and pour into a strainer lined with GOOD cheese cloth (one that does not have a large weave). If your cheese cloth does have a large weave, double it over the strainer, and place over a stainless steel pot to drain completely. Place in the refrigerator overnight and allow to fully drain. Toss the liquid and place cheese into a clean plastic container with a top. You now have Ricotta cheese as well!

Shiny, smooth, soft ball of Cheese

Separating out the whey

2 Cor 5:7

"We live by Faith, not by site"

Straining the Ricotta Cheese

Making Butter. Angela literally placed chilled goat cream into her food processor for 7-11 minutes. Once it formed a butter ball, she drained off the liquid and we had homemade butter! Who knew this stuff was so easy?

It was a wonderful day at the goat farm. We learned a lot, ate a lot, and laughed a lot. I am certain to be making more cheeses at home very soon. Next Saturday, Ken will be teaching us how to make a few hard cheeses! Please check back with us as our journey continues.....

NOTE: New England Cheese Making Supply Company offers starters, pots, molds and everything you will need to begin making your own cheese at home! www.cheesemaking.com another good cheese supplier can be found here http://glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/