soap question

[RockyToggRanch]

Is there a recipe for goats milk soap anywhere that uses more than a few cups??? Man...I have to use this milk faster.

My molds have arrived and I'll be soaping this weekend

 

[Mea]

Is there a recipe for goats milk soap anywhere that uses more than a few cups??? Man...I have to use this milk faster.

My molds have arrived and I'll be soaping this weekend

I have often wondered about that myself ! When i googled goats milk soap... the recipes i came up with use so many other things and very little actual goats milk. I'm hesitant to put so much money into something that uses such a small percentage of something i have plenty of. /


It is something that i do hope to learn about.

 

[freemotion]

The milk simply replaces the water in the recipe. You really can't put more liquid into it, the ratios have to be pretty precise, as it is a chemical reaction that turns the oils into soap.

However....once you create a market, goat's milk soap is pretty popular!

Cheesemaking uses up a LOT of milk! Get brave and make some cheeses that you can age for months and have when your does are dry. Feta is very easy. I have a five gallon stock pot and only make four gallon batches at a time. It takes the same amount of work and time, pretty much, to make a big batch as it does to make a small batch.

Ricotta and mozzarella freeze well, as does chevre. You can age cheddars and other waxed cheeses, and romano is aged for about a year!

And....YUM!

 

[RockyToggRanch]

The milk simply replaces the water in the recipe. You really can't put more liquid into it, the ratios have to be pretty precise, as it is a chemical reaction that turns the oils into soap.

However....once you create a market, goat's milk soap is pretty popular!

Cheesemaking uses up a LOT of milk! Get brave and make some cheeses that you can age for months and have when your does are dry. Feta is very easy. I have a five gallon stock pot and only make four gallon batches at a time. It takes the same amount of work and time, pretty much, to make a big batch as it does to make a small batch.

Ricotta and mozzarella freeze well, as does chevre. You can age cheddars and other waxed cheeses, and romano is aged for about a year!

And....YUM!

You have inspired me to make more cheese. I also see one of my spare bedrooms as a soap curing room.....I can smell it now

It's an expensive hobby at this point...but what the heck.

 

[freemotion]

Think in terms of your cellar for aging...you need a cool, humid place. I ended up getting a second fridge.

Expensive hobby? Never! You are now eating gourmet cheese that would sell for $25/lb and up....if you could even get it in this country. Raw cheese has to be aged for 60 days to be sold in the USA. We can eat it whenever we want. You are also making something that cannot compare with commercial cheeses and dairy products.....yours are higher in nutrients and valuable enzymes (especially if raw) and are cruelty-free.

Now go buy another goat.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

LOL...I'm getting a first freshener this weekend. I have all I can do to keep up now. I loves me a challenge

My cellar is finished:/ carpet and heat. But I do have 2 dorm fridges that got kicked back to me when my daughters were done with them. I wonder if I can manipulate the humidity enough in them...

Then again...I've always wanted to build a root cellar hmmmm

 

[MrsCountryChick]

Think in terms of your cellar for aging...you need a cool, humid place. I ended up getting a second fridge.

Expensive hobby? Never! You are now eating gourmet cheese that would sell for $25/lb and up....if you could even get it in this country. Raw cheese has to be aged for 60 days to be sold in the USA. We can eat it whenever we want. You are also making something that cannot compare with commercial cheeses and dairy products.....yours are higher in nutrients and valuable enzymes (especially if raw) and are cruelty-free.

Now go buy another goat.

Very Well Said Freemotion!

Do you happen to have the recipe that you successfully use for feta?

 

[RockyToggRanch]

I have been making feta every day for 2 weeks using the recipes in Mary Jane Toths book..."Goats Produce Too".

I've made the mild and the strong (My fave). So simple....

 

[freemotion]

I don't know where I got my feta recipe, but it is copied below. I recently started copying the source into my files so I would know, so my apologies to the author.... I copy my favorites onto card stock and put them in sleeves and into a binder. Then I can just clip the recipe onto the freezer door while I am working on it.

I ordered a couple more books and am looking forward to increasing my cheese repertoire this season. The hens will be happy with my failures. Although most failures are still yummy cheese, even if it is not what was planned.

I want to try a feta pizza recipe someone told me about today....crust topped with a garlicy white sauce, dried tomatoes, feta, and a bit of oregano. Yum!

Traditional (Greek-style) feta cheese aged in salt brine
1 gallon milk
1/4 cup cheese culture or buttermilk
1/8 teaspoon lipase enzyme powder
1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet
1/2 cup cool water
Coarse salt
Brine solution
Warm milk to 86 F. Stir in culture or buttermilk, add lipase enzyme to 1/4 cup cool water, dissolve enzyme and stir into milk. Set 1 hour to ripen.
Mix rennet in 1/4 cup cool water and stir into ripened milk for one minute. Allow 40 minutes to coagulate. Cut curds into one-inch cubes and let rest for 10 minutes. Stir gently for 20 minutes, keeping the curds at 86 F. Pour curds into cheesecloth-lined colander and hang the bag of curds to drain for six to eight hours.
After draining, the cheese will be very firm. Slice in half, salt all the surfaces of the cheese with coarse salt and place sections of cheese into a dish. Keep the cheese in a covered dish during the salting process at room temperature for two days. Rub all the surfaces with more salt each day. Drain off any liquid that seeps out of the cheese.
This cheese will become very strong smelling during the salting process. That is the lipase enzyme powder doing its job. After two days, the cheese should become tougher and can now be aged in a brine solution in the refrigerator. Age in brine for one to four weeks.
Brine solution:
7 ounces of canning or kosher salt
1/2 gallon cool water
Mix salt and water together. Not all of the salt will get dissolved. Place the cheese into a crock or dish with a lid. Cover the cheese with the brine solution. Cheese needs to be immersed in the brine.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

That is the recipe in Mary Jane Toth's book for "strong feta" there's also a recipe for "mild feta" as well as many others.

I ate that strong feta for breakfast yesterday. As I was putting the chunks into the brine I stole one

My son took a lb of mild feta home with him the night before. I don't think I can make it fast enough