Goatucation: Waxing Cheese

In the last several Goatucation posts you have seen how the publicist makes different kinds of cheese from my rich milk. When she makes a hard cheese like cheddar or parmesean the cheese has to be waxed before it is stored away to cure. This is how the publicist waxes her cheeses.

First she melts her wax in a glass baking dish in the oven. It takes a while. She is usually bored waiting for it to melt so she does something else like read blogs or feed goats. Mmmm, feeding goats - THAT'S a very good idea if you ask me.

Once the wax is melted she takes her dried cheese; well, not dried cheese but her cheese that has sat out and dried a bit. Cheddar and Colby have to sit out for a day or two, parmesean has to sit out for two weeks. Monteray Jack goes in a brine solution first, then it sits out to dry.  This is what a cheddar looks like before she waxes it.

 Then she rolls it in the hot wax to get the sides coated.

She picks it up and paints the wax on the bottom and then she turns it over and paints the other side.

(Yes, the wax is hot. Yes, the wax burns)

Many thin coats are better than one or two thick coats. She puts on about 8 coats of wax.
This is what the finished cheese looks like.

 Then she uses a toothpick to write the kind of cheese and the date on top.

And it goes into her refrigerator. Right now since she is waiting so patiently to get into her yurt she is using her house refrigerator to store her cheeses.

(That's a lot of cheese!)

When she does get in the house she won't be able to do that so she is hoping to get a wine cooler to store them. It is supposed to work very well.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing how the publicist waxes her cheese. As you can see there was no hair on any of the cheese!

Tomorrow: Brrrrr!

Goatucation - Goat's Milk Cheesemaking: Cheddar

It's another Monday so that means another Goatucation. We haven't covered all the cheeses that the publicist makes so I have another post in the goat's milk cheesemaking series. This time it is cheddar cheese. I know that a lot of you humans love cheddar cheese - it's the favorite of both the publicist and male person so she makes a lot of it!

The publicist starts as she always does with her big stainless steel pot full of two gallons of rich goat's milk. She then warms it to 88*

Then she adds 1/2 cup of cultured buttermilk. This time she used buttermilk she cultured herself! She used the buttermilk leftover from when she made butter! She just added some commercial buttermilk to it to culture and it was ready to go in a couple of days.  After the buttermilk ripened in the goat's milk for an hour she then adds a diluted rennet solution and lets the milk sit for 45 minutes until it curds up.

Then the publicist cuts the curds, lets them rest for 20 minutes and then she has to stir them gently while slowly bringing the temperature up to 98*. This is what the curds look like after all of that.

Then the curds get to sink to the bottom of the pot and rest for about half an hour. Then she pours off the whey and let the curds sit in her cheesecloth lined stainless steel colander for about 10 minutes.

Then they go back into her pot with 4 tsp. of kosher salt. She mixes them all up and they sit for an hour.

After this the curds get put into a cheesecloth lined cheese press.

The follower goes on - this is basically the wooden lid.

Then they sit with 15lbs of pressure for 20 minutes.

 

Doesn't it look like some kind of cheese torture device?

The cheese gets turned and re-wrapped three mored times; each time for longer periods at higher pressures. The last one being at 40lbs for 24 hours.

Then the cheese gets unwrapped and has to air dry for several days before it can be waxed.  
Next week the publicist will show you how she waxes her cheeses. 
An no, they are not hairy!
Heh heh.

Don't forget the sale in the publicist's shop. It ends tonight - 30% off and free shipping.


Tomorrow:  On the bark hunt.

Goatucation - Making Goat's Milk Cheese: Ricotta

Here I am again with another in the cheesemaking series using my rich milk. The publicist is very happy with the cheese she makes with my rich milk because my milk is so, well rich!
Today's lesson is going to be on ricotta cheese which she makes with the whey leftover from making another cheese like Parmesean or Cheddar.

By definition WHEY is the liquid leftover after milk has been curdled and strained. It's what remains after cheesemaking. Now, not all wheys are good for making ricotta! It has to be a whey from a cheese that used a higher concentration of rennet. For example: any of the hard cheeses. You cannot use the whey from chevre because the amount of rennet used is too little.

The publicist takes about a gallon of whey and adds a quart of my rich milk. She heats this to 195*. Oooooh, hot!

When the mixture reaches the right temperature she turns off the heat and adds in the juice of a lemon - about 1/4 cup.


She stirs and stirs until little tiny curds start to appear. This is the ricotta!



She then pours it into a cheesecloth lined stainless steel colandar where it drains for about 20 minutes.

Then it goes into a container where she adds salt to taste and it's ready to use.

She is planning to make raviolis this week. 
I hope you enjoyed another cheese making lesson.


Tomorrow:  Snow?!


Be sure to stop by the publicist's blog and enter her giveaway for a Butter Bell Butter Crock - it ends tonight!

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Goatucation - Making Goat's Milk Cheese: Parmesean, Part I

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.