making goat cheese Archives - GoatKeepers Press

Dairy goats giving milk must be milked out regularly or they will stop giving milk. As the refrigerator fills with milk, the question is what to do with this milk. Making vinegar set ricotta cheese is one possibility.

This cheese is considered to be a good beginner’s cheese. It takes few ingredients, is forgiving of sloppy temperatures and can be used in lots of ways.

Cheese Making Equipment

Any cheese makes whey which quickly becomes acidic. A stainless steel stock pot is important. I use a two gallon pot. When I made more kinds of cheese in larger quantities, I had a six gallon pot.

If the pot has bolt heads inside the pot, the milk level should always be below them as they are not stainless steel. The pot must have a lid.

A cheese thermometer is a must. Although making vinegar set ricotta cheese has a wide temperature range, most cheeses have a specific setting temperature. Cheese temperatures range from 70 to 200 degrees.

For making vinegar set ricotta cheese my utensils include a stainless steel whisk, a measuring cup, plastic or glass, and a stainless steel colander. The white vinegar comes from the market.

Making Vinegar Set Ricotta Cheese

Whisking the vinegar into the hot milk causes the curds to coagulate and separate from the whey. This can take a minute. Just keep stirring. It makes the mixture look lumpy. If the curds are very fine, it will look grainy.

This is a forgiving cheese as I’ve said. The milk can come straight in from the milk room and be strained into the pot. It can be cold milk from the refrigerator.

Fill your pot and slowly heat it. It’s a good idea to keep the lid on so the milk doesn’t skin as it gets hot.

Every so often use the whisk to stir the milk so it heats more evenly. Check the temperature each time. You want the milk to reach 175 to 185 degrees.

Once the milk is hot, whisk in the vinegar. I find a half cup per gallon works for me. This, too, is lenient. You can add a bit more to set the milk harder.

You should see the milk turn grainy as the vinegar and milk mix. The grains can vary in size from tiny to quarter inch or larger. They stick to the whisk so you can see them. You should see the milk separate into curds and whey.

When I made lemon cheesecake from the cheese, I set the milk with lemon juice. It takes more than the vinegar and has a lower yield.

Turn off the heat. Put the lid on the pot. Let the pot sit and cool down.

Unlike many cheeses, the amount of milk used for vinegar set ricotta cheese is highly variable. As I wanted new pictures for this post, I made a big saucepan of cheese to add to the cheese I made a couple of days ago to make enchiladas. Just adjust the amount of vinegar added. This is a very bland cheese so added spices and herbs really dress it up to suit whatever recipe you are making. For the enchiladas I added chopped garlic chives. Chopped onion and peppers work well too. I prefer using the vinegar set ricotta cheese to cream cheese in most recipes as I can add flavors to it easily. It can be used like cottage cheese. This is a very versatile cheese.

Rescuing Your Cheese

The curds settle into a soft mass. Use the colander to separate the curds and whey. You can keep the whey to use for pasta or even feed your goats. You can water the grass.

If the curds are very fine, line the colander with nylon netting. I prefer this to cheesecloth as the weave is fixed and it is very easy to wash. The small curds drain very slowly and the resulting cheese will spoil faster.

Larger curds can be rolled around in the colander to drain out as much of the whey as you can.

Either way, refrigerate the curds. Then start planning those lasagnas, quiches, cheesecakes and more to use up your goat cheese.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper

There are more cheese recipes in “Goat Games”. Pumpkin cheesecake is one of the recipes in “The Pumpkin Project”.

Next week will be a mozzarella type cheese.

Three kids are sold and gone. The two wethers and two bucks are left and still gorging on milk. But there is enough leftover now and it’s time for cheese again.

As with so many things, I no longer do a lot of cheese or kinds of cheese. Every Monday I do a small batch of a mozzarella type. Occasionally I do the vinegar set ricotta

Milk Is the Beginning

Most cheese directions begin in the kitchen. I prefer to start in the milk room as cheese actually begins with milk.

Ozark summers bring warm mornings. These in turn sour milk. This does not make good cheese or table milk for that matter.

Some years back I tried to come up with a way for cool my milk before it even made it into the kitchen. This matters as warm milk takes a long time to cool down in the refrigerator and makes it work harder, not a good thing with older refrigerators in a hot kitchen.

My solution was to freeze a juice bottle of water. This is placed in the milk tote when I go out. The warm milk cools a lot as the ice melts inside the bottle.

When you try this, remember water expands about ten percent when it freezes, so leave room in the bottle. Use a thicker plastic juice bottle, 20 ounce. Tighten the lid securely.

It’s easy to think cheese recipes only matter in the kitchen. Cheese actually begins in the barn. My hard working (Ha!) Nubian does come in at milking time to gobble up their grain and other treats. Pieces of apple, corn husks, lettuce leaves and other things are appreciated. Pumpkin and squash pieces are big favorites. In return I get milk from which I can make cheese.

Pasteurizing

I made this mistake once. My cheese never set. If you do pasteurize, you will need starters for the milk to replace what the heat killed.

My cheese is made from raw milk. Yes, raw milk can carry diseases. However, I know my goats and don’t use milk from goats feeling ill.

Another check is how long the milk stays good in the refrigerator. Mine stays good for over a week. I keep my equipment clean, my glass bottles clean and put the milk up as soon as I get in from the milk room.

Now It’s Time for Cheese Again

Next week I’ll post about making fresh milk ricotta. I don’t make big batches any more so I’ll start with three quarts of fresh milk, just in from the milk room.