Adventures in Hobby Farming: Part 3 - Making Cheese

Cheese starts here, with a beautiful dairy goat like JJ here

I don't talk about my life on the hobby farm as often as I probably should. There's so much to do on a day-to-day basis that it's hard to find the time to put together a post on the things I do that, at this point, I take for granted, like making cheese. Camille and I have been doing this for so long now it's routine for us.

We run a small business out of our home to supplement our income and offset our food costs. The dairy goats are a large part of that strategy. Between the cheese, yogurt and kefir, my girls provide us with so much goodness I'm hard pressed to remember how I ever lived eating a different way.

The goat pictured above is JJ.

She's retired from milking because 1) she's nearly 8 years old, 2) she's had a rough life for a dairy animal (she was sold three times in her first year) and 3) I don't need her milk at this point and 4) she's a big producer with pinholes so milking her is a real chore I choose not to engage in twice every day.

JJ is special to me because she was my first dairy goat. Part of the reason she's had a tough life is that she was my training goat. I learned how to take care of dairy goats with her. And the learning curve is steep. So, those first few years weren't easy on her.

And I've rewarded her with early retirement from milking for yeoman's service and the fact that she fed our family for two years while I was unemployed. Being a production animal is hard on them. Breeding and milking is tough work. So, a couple of years of one-third grain rations, hay and pasture without having to go through all that is a cost I'm more than willing to bear.

For this post, I detailed in video the entire process of making a cheese from start to finish. It's a little over 30 minutes long, but there's nothing left out.

I want to stress that cheese is an art but it's also a pretty simple technical process.

The main steps are as follows:

1. Milk the goats.

   This is the most important step as it implies all of the work, time and capital necessary to get to that point.

2. Culture the Milk

   Add a bacteria which will populate the milk and drive any existing bacteria out through proliferation. Some cheeses also require lipase, which imparts that strong, pungent sharpness associated with cheeses like limburger and feta.

3. Add Rennet

   Rennet is an enzyme that separates the cheese curds from the whey. It comes in two forms, vegetable and veal calf. Calf rennet makes better cheese IMO.

4. Cut Curds

   Cutting releases the whey faster so that the cheese forms and dries out quicker.

5. Cook Curds

   This is where the differences in cheeses comes from. It's all about time and temperature. The longer you cook the curds the drier the cheese will be. Raise the temp too quickly and your cheese will seize into an inedible rubber ball. Goat milk requires lower temperatures than cow's milk, the proteins are more likely to seize, so gentle heating and lower temperatures than in most internet recipes is called for.

6. Drain the Whey

   Once the curds are cooked to your liking, strain out the whey through some cheesecloth or nylon.

7. Salt the Curds

   Add salt to add flavors.

8. Press or Hand Cheese

   Depending on the recipe and the desired dryness cheeses should be formed into a solid mass for 12 to 24 hours.

9. Seal Cheese

   You can use cheese wax, but you can also use household saturated fats. In the Little House on the Prairie Books Laura's mom rubbed the cheese with butter to seal it as it aged.

10. Age Cheese

    A minimum of two weeks if you want to get any flavor. The longer the cheese ages the sharper the flavors get.

Without further ado.

A Day in the Life of an Amateur Cheese Maker

I hope you enjoyed this. I'll do one on how to make Greek-style yogurt from just fresh goat milk.