Goat Cheese with Recipe

I've done my share of trial and error with cheesemaking...mostly error. What I have found is that making Goat Cheese is nearly fail-proof. I have failed, but I have about an 8 out of 10 success rate compared to 1 out of 10 for mozzerella.
In our home, we've been using a lot of store bought Goat Cheese lately and when my supplier down the road showed up with Goat Milk out-of-the-blue, I couldn't resist turning it into yummy Goat Cheese.



I love this book "The Home Creamery" by Kathy Farrell Kingsley about making all of your own fresh dairy products. It has several Goat Cheese Recipes to pick from. I wish I could say I make all of my own dairy products, but I am a busy gal. I am proud to say I could if I had to. I've made yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, and various forms of soft cheeses that I'm not sure into which category they would fit.

For Real Though, Goat Cheese is REALLY easy to make at HOME. Here's how I do it:

You will need:

2 Quarts Gallon Goat's Milk
1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar (White Vinegar or Lemon Juice works too)
2 Quarts or bigger Saucepan or Stockpot
Cooking Thermometer
Cheese Cloth
Strainer
Bowl to fit under strainer
Salt & Desired Seasonings




Directions:

1. Pour Goat's Milk into Saucepan and let set until room temperature if you don't have time to mess with it right away. The batch I just made sat out for a day befre I was ready to get to it. Don't freak out. See future instructions about making cottage cheese and sour cream.

2. Heat Goat's Milk to 180 degrees and turn off heat.

3. Pour in vinegar and give on quick stir.

4. Let set until cool enough to pour (curds should form and seperate from whey).

5. While milk is cooling, cover inside of strainer with Cheesecloth and place over bowl.

6. Once cool, pour curds and whey over the strainer with cheesecloth, catching the curds in the cloth, leaving the whey to drain through into the bowl.

7. Once liquid is completely drained and curds are left in cheesecloth, gather the cloth around the curds and tie them up making it like a bag holding the cheese.

8. Take a wooden spoon/spatula/or something long enough to blance on tall stockpot and place on the tie of the bag and tie a knot to keep it in place.

9. Pour whey into glass jar and feed to pets or save for other recipes, smoothies, etc.

10. Hang bag over stockpot for a couple hours or overnight if you don't want to deal with it.

11. Remove cheese from cloth and add salt (about 1 tsp) and other desired seasonings. The cheese I have pictured has garlic, salt, pepper, and fresh Italian parsley.

12. Cover and refrigerate, or eat fresh!

Nothing is better than Homemade, Home Cooked WHOLE foods.