Cheese Making

June 18, 2009 by Debbie.

As I mentioned in the last post I’ve had to make cheese 3 times a week to make use of all the milk I’m getting right now. That will stop soon as the Texas summer heat is coming in fast. So, it’s make cheese while the sun doesn’t shine as fiercely.  At my last cheese making I took some pictures so you could enjoy it as well.

To start at the very beginning would have been almost a year ago when the does were bred so I’ll fast forward to the morning’s milking. The actual milking consists of putting the doe in the milking stanchion so she can eat while I milk. I wash her udder, checking it for any possible injury at the same time. Dry with a clean cloth. Squirt the first 5 squirts from each teat into a strip cup - this special cup has a screen on top to catch any lumps or show any blood tinges. The first little bit of milk in the teat has the most potential for bacteria as it’s down by the teat opening. I switch the strip cup for the milking pan - a stainless steel pan that has been sanitizied. I milk the doe completely out in about 10 minutes. After removing the milking pan and covering it, I spray teat dip on both teats and release the doe’s head stall so she can leave the stanchion when she’s done eating. I carry the pan of milk into the house and do a mastitis test on it weekly.

The milk is then strained in a sanitized stainless steel strainer that has a milk filter in it.

I weigh the milk each time so I know the doe is producing a good amount. If the production drops off I will research possible problems. Betsy has been giving 3 pounds (1 1/2 quarts) at the morning milking - a good amount for a Nigerian Dwarf Milk Goat. The jar of milk goes immediately into an ice water bath to cool it down to 40 degrees in less than 30 minutes, insuring the best tasting milk!

After all the milking is done I pour 1 1/2 gallon of milk into a large stainless steel pan and put under low heat. While the milk is heating I dissolve 2 teaspoons citric acid in some cool water and 1/4 a rennet tablet in another small amount of cool water. I stir the citric acid in at 50 degrees and the rennet in at 90-100 degrees. The curded milk will pull away from the sides of the pan, showing the left over yellowish whey.

Now comes the fun part -I strain the curds out of the whey, saving the whey to make ricotta later and cook the curd 45 seconds at a time in the microwave. This stretching process could also be done in a pan on top of the stove, but this is a lazy way I like.

The cheese is stretched just like taffy. And just like taffy, it’s HOT so I keep a sink of ice water to dunk my hands in to cool them. I pour off any excess whey as I heat and stretch the curds. This heating and stretching is done when the cheese is smooth and very elastic. Right before the cheese is finished I add some sea salt. Experience will teach when it’s time to add the salt.  I mash the salt into the cheese and heat it for the last time.

After the last heating I wrap the cheese and refrigerate til needed but I use it within 3 days as it is a semi-soft cheese, not meant to be kept long term.

The remaining whey is put under heat again and brought to a rolling boil. This curds any remaining milk proteins into a very fine grained ricotta cheese. Once the whey comes to a boil and I can see the ricotta forming on the top I pour the whey through a cheese cloth and let the ricotta drain for a while.

After the whey has drained away I scoop the ricotta into a bowl and refrigerate.

I have enough mozzarella and ricotta to make a full lasagna or we make pizza and add spices to the ricotta for a cheese dip. Both freeze really well also.

I still remember once when serving lasagna for dinner the guest asked if it was homemade. I was so embarrassed to say no, it wasn’t; I’d had to buy the mozzarella and ricotta cheese instead of making my own. All she wanted to know was if it was store bought frozen lasagna………… I didn’t even know there was such a thing!

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