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| A fresh present! |
When we went to Brambles Nubian Goat Farm to pick up our buckling, Rebecca gave us an awesome present: fresh goat milk! I've never had fresh milk and it is beautiful: creamy, mild and a wee bit sweet. Like so many things - blows away the stuff in the stores! I can hardly wait until we have our own steady supply (Go, Buckling, Go!). What to do with fresh goat milk a couple of days before Christmas? Make cheese, of course! And maybe a little soap.....
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| Heat until steamy and frothy, not boiling! |
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| The tiny curds draining. |
We've made cheese
before; we acquired a great starter cheese kit on Etsy from
Urban Cheesecraft, which has everything you need. Making simple, soft cheese is really quite easy. The milk goes into a heavy, stainless pot and is heated to 180 - 190 degrees Fahrenheit, until it's steaming and frothy but not boiling, stirring regularly. Then, you add in citric acid dissolved in water. Curds start to form almost right away - for our goat cheeses the curds have always been tiny. Stir for a few minutes off the heat, then pour into a cheesecloth lined colander. We capture the whey, the yellow liquid, because it's great for the chickens or in place of stock in soups and stews. The cats quite like it, too!
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| Packing the curds into the mold. |
The curds are left to drain for ten minutes, then kosher salt is stirred in. Then, the curds are placed in a mold, or for a casual ball, you can just leave them in the cheesecloth. We weighted down the curds for a firmer set, we put plastic wrap over the top of the mold and popped on a jar of jam. After refrigerating for an hour, we have a nice, soft goat cheese! And sooooo tasty!
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| The finished product! |
I had an idea how cheese was made but this really makes it look so simple (and tasty!). Merry Christmas to you at the farm and best wishes in the new year.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Southern California
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Have a Safe & Happy New Year! :-)
Welcome, Ron! Check out our Facebook page: Aagaard Farms! Marguerite: soft cheeses are pretty fast and easy, and citric acid is all you need. Harder cheeses require rennet, too, and you can get a vegetarian version if you desire!
ReplyDeleteHappy, Happy to everyone and Best Wishes for an Awesome New Year!
Very nice. I love making cheese.
ReplyDeleteHappy to find a fellow Canuck! Cheese is the one thing I'm dying to make at home- maybe this is the year I finally get to it.
ReplyDeleteHi, Lynda, Hi, CallieK; Soft cheeses are really quite easy - a surprise to me when I first started making them! We've made them before with store bought milk but sooooo nice to have fresh, unpasturized! It really did make a difference!
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