Friday, April 17, 2009

Goat Cheese

After my yogurt, I saw You Are What I Eat's goat cheese. It's a "cheater" version using lemon juice or vinegar from an eHow article. I used a local goat milk, pasteurized (not uht) but not organic. I was really hoping the lemon juice would work for me, but no luck. I think I stirred too much. I didn't realize that I should just let it sit for the curds to develop (really, that should be common sense, but I missed it). In any case, I ended up also adding 1 tsp red wine vinegar. I started by combining 1qt goat milk and 1TB lemon juice.

Bringing the milk to 175 and skimming the curds.






















After draining 4 hrs (and the dark-evening photo).















After wrapping in parchment and refrigerating for 2 days, it turned out pretty nice. It was milder and less goat-y than the chevre I've purchased, though I don't know if that's the difference in the type of cheese or the milk or both.


Also on the goat cheese theme, we had a little goat cheese tasting here :) Carr Valley's Snow White Goat Cheddar, Cocoa Cardona (Sendiks carries!) and Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery's Raw Goat Milk Mild Cheddar(from SlowPokes in Grafton). I've just finished The Ominvore's Dilemma, which I loved, so I liked the idea of just Wisconsin cheeses. Even if they're on the other side of the state :) I think my favorite was the Cocoa Cardona. It was creamy rich and almost buttery. The Mt. Sterling was very mild. The difference in the Snow White Cheddar and the Mt. Sterling cheddar seemed to be similar in the difference between the fresh goat cheese I buy and what I just made. We'd never really tried any hard goat cheeses before, so this was fun.:)

2 comments:

Megan said...

Isn't cheese making fun? I just learned how to make ricotta. And it's so much better than store-bought.

sutros said...

A good story

GK Chesterton: “The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”

Voila: www.tastingtoeternity.com. This book is a poetic view of 30 of the best loved French cheeses with an additional two odes to cheese. Recipes, wine pairing, three short stories and an educational section complete the book.

From a hectic life in New York City to the peace and glories of the French countryside lead me to be the co-founder of www.fromages.com. Ten years later with the words of Pierre Androuet hammering on my brain:

“Cheese is the soul of the soil. It is the purest and most romantic link between humans and the earth.”

I took pen and paper; many reams later with the midnight oil burning Tasting to Eternity was born and self published.

I believe cheese and wine lovers should be told about this publication.

Enjoy