Time to make Cheese

[Southern by choice]

Well...my ricotta was a bust.

Called several friends... none of them have had any luck with making it from the whey. Milk yes, whey no.

Nothing lost it will go to the pigs.

I do have several gallons right now waiting to be used so I may try it with the milk and see how it goes.

Meanwhile I am trying to figure what flavors I want the Chevre.

 

[OneFineAcre]

In good old over regulated CA I can't even give the cheese away without facing legal consequences. And they do raid farms on a fairly regular basis...hence the dairy...

You can't give it away
That is crazy

There are no less than 10
Ads on CL now for raw milk goat and cow
All quoting the state law
From $10 to $14 per gallon

 

[OneFineAcre]

Well...my ricotta was a bust.

Called several friends... none of them have had any luck with making it from the whey. Milk yes, whey no.

Nothing lost it will go to the pigs.

I do have several gallons right now waiting to be used so I may try it with the milk and see how it goes.

Meanwhile I am trying to figure what flavors I want the Chevre.

We've made ricotta before with milk and used it in lasagna
Never tried it with whey
Have you tried any aged cheeses?

 

[norseofcourse]

I've made ricotta twice with the whey from making lemon cheese. Or at least it might be ricotta, I'm not sure. Put another way, *something* cheese-like precipitated out of the whey when I heated it to 200 degrees (one batch adding vinegar, one batch I didn't). It was firmer and different-tasting than the lemon cheese. I'm still very new at cheesemaking...

 

[babsbag]

Ok, there are 2 kinds of whey, acid whey and sweet whey; they are not the same. You can't make ricotta from Chevre whey. I will cut and paste...

ACID WHEY
This comes from cheeses where you use lemons, vinegar, citric acid, etc. to acidify the milk. For example, if you make our 30 Minute Mozzarella, Panir, Lemon Cheese or Whole Milk Ricotta, your whey will be acidic. It also comes from making Chevre, Camembert, Feta, etc. where the pH is down around 4.6-4.8. This whey is tangy tasting and it may be frozen to use later.


Uses:
Pour on acid loving plants or where the soil is too alkaline.
Make a fruit drink by reconstituting the juice with it instead of whey. Or, make lemonade by adding sweetener.
Add seasonings and use as a marinade for meat.
Add a few tablespoons of it to the soaking water of your beans.
Feed it to your dog(s) or chickens.
Cook your oatmeal, rice or polenta in it.

SWEET WHEY
This comes from cheeses where bacterial cultures have been used and the whey has been drained at a pH of 5.2 or above. This includes all hard cheeses (Cheddar, in particular), Yogurt Cheese, and most soft cheeses. This whey not only has vitamins, minerals and proteins, but also beneficial bacteria (which aids digestion). It has a milder flavor than acid whey. It may be frozen for later use, but not if you will be making Ricotta or a whey cheese from it.

Uses:
All of the uses above apply to this whey.
It may be used as a substitute for buttermilk in any recipe, especially pancakes, cornbread and scones.
It may be used as a substitute for the liquid in any bread recipe. (Some recommend using only ½ cup at first, but most of us end up replacing all the liquid with whey.) It may cause the bread to rise a little faster than usual and brown quicker, but the taste is wonderful.
Add to soup.
Add to bath water.
Freeze it in cubes and add it to smoothies.
Make Ricotta.
Make Mysost or Gjetost (See Whey Cheeses) .

 

[babsbag]

I have made Farmhouse cheddar and it was ok, pretty dry but edible. http://www.leeners.com/cheese/recipes/cheddar1.shtml

I do Feta on a regular basis and I have done mozarella and cottage cheese too. Love the feta, not crazy about the moz. and the cottage cheese was a lot of work for something that didn't keep very long. I did Camembert once but I need a better way to age it. I also do yogurt and Keifer. Love the keifer. And let's not forget ice cream.

My dairy will do fluid milk and Chevre to start and then add yogurt, keifer, ice cream and maybe butter. At some point would like to add aged cheeses but that is an art I have not mastered.

 

[norseofcourse]

Ok, there are 2 kinds of whey, acid whey and sweet whey; they are not the same. You can't make ricotta from Chevre whey. I will cut and paste...

This is great info - thank you! I have the "Home Cheesemaking" book, but it doesn't make a distinction between sweet and acid whey, and I hadn't read through their website for more about whey.

So, the 'extra' curd I got when I increased the temperature after making the lemon cheese was *not* ricotta. More reading has led me to find that the temperatures for lemon cheese type recipes vary - the recipe I have says 175°, but I've seen a range up to about 200 - so maybe I need to go to a higher temperature? I am finding I get something starting to precipitate out of the milk at about 180 to 185, without adding anything (unpasteurized, unhomogenized sheep's milk). Does anyone know if that happens with goat's milk, too?

 

[Southern by choice]

Wow! Wish there was something about that in ANY of the recipes I looked at. As a matter of real irritation the one recipe said after you make your mozzarella don't waste the whey make ricotta.

 

[babsbag]

That is probably true of Mozzarella but not the 30 min. one where you add citric acid.

I will try any recipe with goat milk since that is all I have. Some are good...some not so good. Cheddar and gouda came out ok. Those were the cheeses I make the ricotta from.

My "go to" book is by Ricki Carroll when it comes to home cheese making. All of the Ricotta recipes say whey has to be not more than 3 hours old. I have made ricotta from whey by just heating it until it foams, but not boils. Turn off the heat and let it set for 5 min. Skim off the foam and then pour the whey though butter muslin.

I have also made ricotta by adding cider vinegar and also adding mesophilic starter to improve the flavor.

Gjetost is on my bucket list, as is mastering Camembert.

 

[babsbag]

@norseofcourse if the book you have is by Ricki Carrol then I don't think there is any mention of the whey other than saying that it has to be whey from making hard cheese. For those that want the science behind cheese making the book Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell is the best.