Looking around on hoegger's website just has me more confused!! please tell me, as if you were telling a 3 y/o, what exactly i need! i need everything: strainers, milking buckets and EVERYTHING to make cheese. i have requests for every kind of cheese, hard, semi-soft and soft cheeses. i also need to know what to get to store milk. :question:
With Hoeggars get the Cheesemaking starter kit...It has the cookbook "Goats Produce Too" as well as cheesecloth, rennet and a few molds. Once you get that kit...I use it very often, the book has super simple recipes as well as a list of what you need. A tip though...I would stick with the soft cheeses until you master them..the hard pressed cheeses such as cheddar are a good deal more involved. As far as storing the milk, I use half gallon juice bottles/ like what Ocean Spray and V8 juice come in....I then freeze the milk til I have the time to make the cheeses of choice. Fresh Cultured buttermilk is the starter for the majority of the cheeses I make...chevre, feta, etc
You will most likely need mesophilic cultures and rennet (rennin), which I order from those from Dairy Connection. http://fiascofarm.com/ Has some good tips for cheese making.. Dont be afraid of rennet though :wink:
Hey, Amos....the mesophylic culture IS buttermilk....or I should say, Buttermilk is a sub for the mesophyllic culture and plain cultured yogurt from the store is a sub for the thermophyllic culture. It is easy to get and always available and I have made all my cheeses the last 4 years from these "cultures", never a problem, actually the book I mentioned above even breaks down the amounts of each for whichever cheese is being made., try going to Hoeggars site http://www.thegoatstore.com and go to the cheesemaking section, it does have the kit I mentioned at a reasonable price. :greengrin:
Thank you so much Liz! That is great! I never did know that.. I do use plain yogurt for thermophilic cultures when I make our own yogurt, but I never knew you could use buttermilk for mesophilic.. that is great, because the buttermilk would be alot cheaper.. The packet I got was really small..I think it was like 5-6 dollars.. it does go pretty far but I could get the buttermilk much easier.
Thanks.. I ordered the Goats Produce Too book just the other day actually, so maybe I won't be completely in the dark :wink: BTW, I've only made chevre, and only once, but it tasted ok?
To make chevre you'll need: Milk buttermilk rennet (liquid is easiest to use and measure) a pot that will hold 1 to 2 gallons of milk a colander a linen dish towel or a nice, big, linen napkin (not the fuzzy kind) a sturdy rubber band a big bowl that the colander will nest in, or re-use the big pot you cooked the cheese in Follow the directions for mixing and heating the milk, buttermilk, and rennet. Let set for the allotted time in the big pot. Line the colander with the dish towel. Put the colander in the kitchen sink. Carefully pour the cheese culture into the colander. Pull the corners and sides up to make a bag around the cheese. Tie the bag up with the rubber band. Leave the bag in the colander. Put the colander in the bowl or pot so the cheese can drain. Put the whole thing in the fridge and let it drain for at least a day. Check on the cheese after 12 to 24 hrs and scrape the firmer cheese down into the middle of the cloth. If it still needs to drain, tie up the bag tightly again and put the whole magilla back into the fridge for another 12 to 24 hours. The finished product should be the consistency of a soft cream cheese.
