Today we will continue our travels through the goat's milk cheese recipe book with our first hard cheese. It's not the easiest but it's the one the publicist made today. I want you to be aware that the publicist was a little tired today so she forgot to take some pictures of some of the steps but you will still get the idea. As always we start with my rich milk and the publicist's big stainless steel pot.
She warms the milk to 86* and then she adds thermophilic DVI culture. (This is a "Direct Vat Inoculant" that is put into the warmed milk to add necessary bacteria. Themophilic cultures are like those found in yogurt.) It sits for about 10 minutes and then in goes the diluted rennet. You remember that from last week, right?
Now the milk sits for 45* to curd up. That is my phrase. I am sure there is something more technical like coagulate but I like curd up. Then the publicist cuts the curds and lets them rest. After that she has to stir them. They look like this when she starts.
She has to stir for 40 agonizing wonderful minutes. Gently. They must be stirred gently. And the temperature must be kept at 90*. Then for the next 30 painful delightful minutes she keeps stirring while bringing the temperature up to 120*. Then the curds have to be kept at 120* for another 30 minutes while continuing to stir often. The publicist thinks parmesean curds are a pain in her tail arm.
After she gets the feeling back in her arm Next the whey is poured off - the publicist saved it and made ricotta cheese. Yes, another Goatucation will tell you how - the well stirred curds are put into the cheesecloth lined cheese press. This is the photo the publicist forgot to take. Bad publicist. Bad, bad, bad publicist. The curds stay in the press for an hour at 5lbs of pressure. Then they come out and get new cheesecloth.
This happens three times with the pressure increasing by 5lbs each round. (This is before the pressure gauge is put on.)
Then the cheese sits in the press overnight at 20lbs of pressure. At the last changing the cheese looks like this...
This is as far as the publicist has gotten. The cheese has several more steps to go through and then it gets waxed. That will be Part II of this Goatucation and it will be next Monday's post. I hope you are enjoying all of these cheesemaking stories. The publicist and male person sure do enjoy eating the cheese made from my rich milk.
Tomorrow: The girls get frisky - postponed from Sunday when the publicist was lazy tired.
