Say Cheese!

Well folks, today I had a sort of graduation day from cheesemaking school: I waxed my first hard cheese and put it on the shelf to age for at least a month. It is a simple Monterey Jack, but it represents lots of measuring and cooking milk, cutting curd, and putting cheeses into the press. So far I’ve managed to make an average of one two-pound cheese a day, and I’ve been doing it for about a week now.

Before moving on to hard cheeses, I made loads of fresh Chevre, seasoned with just sea salt, or salt and herbs, but my favorite has sun-dried tomatoes and chives in it. Yum! You know, the kind you pay $5 and up for 4 oz. at the store? My refrigerator was getting pretty well loaded with that, though, so I decided I had to move on. After all, you can only eat so much fresh cheese. Besides we use mostly aged cheese, especially cheddar and pepper jack. I want to try making Parmesan too, but I haven’t used my cream separator yet (Parmesan is made with skim milk). Sam has to mount the separator on a board for me. I would probably do it myself, but I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands right now and can barely function, though it hasn’t stopped me from milking the goats (a no-no I was told).  Look out once the separator is working, however, because I will be able to make butter and ice cream too!

The only thing that hasn’t turned out well is yogurt, and I’ve tried just about everything. Goat milk typically makes thinner yogurt anyway, but mine has been more like buttermilk than yogurt. I haven’t tried pasteurizing, cooling, and then re-heating it yet, though I have tried holding the milk at 180⁰ F. for 20 minutes, and even adding dry milk powder to increase the solids. That has been a challenge, because we really like yogurt, and I had become accustomed to making my own Greek yogurt with store-bought pasteurized cow milk.

As with most everything else, I suppose you just have to keep at it. Persistence always wins in the end.