Cheese making is a whole world of its own as I am beginning to discover. Ive been making cheese weekly with our goats milk. Two out of the four of us in our home are enjoying it. I suppose there are many ways you can use fresh goat cheese but the only way it has been consumed at our house thus far is spread on freshly baked bread, lightly toasted with olive oil. It almost makes your taste buds explode. I have mainly been making chevre and fromage blanc, although I did try mozzarella, which did not turn out aesthetically pleasing but tasted good and melted successfully on our pizza. We are very interested in trying the harder, aged cheeses in the near future. A great resource for supplies, recipes, etc. is New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
If you want to try a soft, fresh cheese yourself, it is pretty easy. There are basically only four steps involved.
Start with at least a gallon of unhomoginized milk of any kind (cow, goat, sheep, yak, whatever you have)...
1) In a large non-aluminum pot, heat your milk to between 86-92 degrees. You dont even really have to use a thermometer, if you dont have one just heat the milk until warm but not so hot it burns your finger (in the old days this was called blood warm).
2) Either add your packet of culture for the cheese you want to make (fromage blanc, chevre, etc.) or add 1/2 cup of white vinegar per gallon of milk. Stir for about a minute or two, cover and set in a warm place overnight or for half of the day.
3) Uncover the pot and you should see that the curds and whey have separated. Strain the curds into a cheese cloth (I always use a cloth napkin or a piece of clean cotton fabric). Catch and save the whey to use later. Hang your cheese to drain in a clean place for another day or so depending on how hard/dry you want your cheese to be.
4) Unwrap the cheese and turn it into a large bowl. Add cheese salt or sea salt to taste and whatever herbs you prefer, our favorite is with lots of dill. Mix well with a fork and refrigerate, eat right away, or label and give to friends as a homemade holiday treat.
As for the by product, I have been very satisfied using the whey we have left over after hanging the cheese. I usually get quite a lot from each batch and have been either mixing it into the chicken feed or using it to make bread. The chickens egg production goes up significantly when they are fed whey and the bread comes out moist, as well as with a higher protein content.
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| Both of these are jars of whey are from the same batch of cheese. The milkier jar is from the first 12 hours of straining, the clearish jar is the second 12 hours. |
I finally found a great bread recipe using 100% whole wheat flour. I know lots of you out there are going gluten free so this is obviously not for you, but for those of us that like to grind our own wheat berries into flour or are just averse to using white flour, this bread comes out surprisingly moist and light.
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison)
The sponge The bread
2 1/4 c whey, warmed 1/3 c olive oil
1 tbls. active dry yeast 2 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c unsulfured molasses 3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c gluten flour
2 c whole wheat flour
Stir warm whey, yeast, molasses, gluten flour, and 2 c whole wheat flour until smooth. Scrape down sides of the bowl, cover, set aside in warm place for an hour until foamy and double in volume.
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| you can buy yeast in bulk and store in the refrigerator |
Gently stir down sponge, add oil, salt, and one cup of the flour and beat until smooth. Add the remaining flour in one cup increments until you have a shaggy, heavy dough. Turn out onto floured counter and knead in flour, a few tbls at a time, until dough is smooth but still a little tacky.
Enjoy!
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