Homemade Goat Cheese: Farm-Fresh Chèvre in One Day | Organic & Sustainable Homesteading Guide
1) Milk, chill, sanitize Brush, wash, pre-dip, dry, strip test. Collect in a covered stainless pail. Filter to jars. Ice-bath to forty degrees within one hour. Log temps and times. 2) Pasteurize or not Low temp long time: one hundred and forty five degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes. High temp short time: one hundred and sixty one degrees for fifteen seconds. Cool fast to eighty five if culturing now, or to forty for storage. 3) Culture and set at eighty five Warm milk to eighty five degrees. Sprinkle chèvre culture. Ripen thirty to forty five minutes. If pasteurized, add calcium chloride. Dilute liquid rennet, about one eighth teaspoon per gallon. Stir thirty seconds. Hold still. Clean break in forty five to sixty minutes. 4) Cut and lift gently Cut one half inch cubes. Rest five minutes. Ladle in blocks to a damp fine cloth set in a colander. Keep motion slow. Whey should look clear and pale. 5) Drain, salt, target pH Drain at room near seventy degrees for four to twelve hours. Stop around pH four point six to four point eight. Weigh curd. Salt one point four to one point eight percent by weight. Chill at once. 6) Form and flavor Work cold. Portion four to six ounce logs or two ounce medallions. Roll on parchment. Quick chill ten to fifteen minutes. Coat only with dry herbs, pepper, or zest. Wrap and label. 7) Store, serve, scale Hold at thirty four to thirty eight degrees. Best within one week. Label date, batch code, flavor, weight, salt percent. Rotate first in, first out. Yield guide: one and a half to two pounds per gallon. Scale culture and rennet by volume. Keep salting by percent.