You need for this exercise also a thermometer that is accurate. Cheesecloth. A large stainless steel pot to heat the milk in. A colander or sieve to drain the curds. String to hang the curds with
Prep Time 30 minutesmins
Ingredients
2litersGoatmilk from Albert Heijn
1/8cupbuttermilk
1/8tspliquid rennet
1/8cupwater
1/2tspsaltpreferably non iodized
Instructions
Before you start take the milk out of the fridge a couple of hours before you want to start making your cheese, so that it is at roomtemperature.
Pour your goatmilk into the pot, stir the buttermilk in and slowly heat to 28 C (or 80 F)
Remove the pot from the heat and then add your 1/8 tsp of rennet to it. Immediately stirring in a top to bottom motion for approx. 30 seconds, then stop, cover the pot and leave it undisturbed for 12 hours inside your oven (obviously not turned on) or a warm place where it won't get jarred.
After 12 hours:
Check your curd. it will look like custard with a clear separation between the curds and whey around the side of the pot. You can see a clean break when tested with a knife.
Prepare the sieve by covering it with layers of cheese cloth, keeping in mind it needs to be large enough to hang later.
Ladle the curd into the sieve to allow the whey to drain. Make sure to cut up the curd as you go along and do not pour it all in without cutting it as that would not get you the best results.
Leave the curds outside of the fridge and once the majority of the whey has drained of in the sieve, hang the cheese in a convenient spot that is not too warm but not too cold either.
With the highly pasteurized milk I used I had to hang the curds for a total of 55 hours before it started to resemble cheese. Every 6 hours or so I mixed it a bit with a spoon, added a bit of salt and hung it back again.
Doing this made sure that the whey kept coming out.
After the 55 hours the cheese was still very soft but could be handled. Make sure your counter top is sanitized, sprinkle some salt over the surface area or over the curds and gently mix in.
Form it into a log on top of plastic wrap or use a herb mixture to roll the log in, then place the mixture on the wrap and roll it tightly and refridgerate.
It will keep for a week to ten days and wrapped in herbs it will last around 2 weeks. Ofcourse if you haven't eaten it by then.. :)
The two liter of milk got me a little over 150 gr of actual cheese. I forgot to weigh it so the 150 gr was after I had eaten a little bit of it, but probably something like 170 gr. The consistency of the cheese throughout the whole process went from a gluelike substance to a very smooth and silky goatcheese.