Making Goat Cheese From Raw Goat Milk
12. Gather all the edges of your cheesecloth together to close it. Be careful not to leave a corner out or you will dump your cheese!
13. Slightly twist the top of the cloth and tie it in a tight not. Be careful not to put pressure on the cheese. You dont want to squeeze it, you just want it to drain on its own.
I then wrap a large rubber band around it to give it addition security and to hang it with.
Enjoy The Benefits Of Goat Milk With These Simple Recipes
Reading Time: 7minutes
Getting started making goat cheese? Try these recipes first!
If youve never made cheese, start with the quick & easy cheeses that need minimal equipment and ingredients and are ready to eat fairly quickly. Once youve mastered a few easy cheeses, you may want to move to pressed and aged cheeses. These vary in complexity and aging time Ive included a few relatively simple and quick options. Well look at some more complicated pressed and aged cheeses in a future article.
Quick & Easy Cheeses: A Great Place to Start
Chévre: Soft Fresh Goat Cheese
* You can substitute 1-2 tbsp cultured buttermilk or homemade sour cream for the mesophilic culture, if desired.
Feta: Dry Salted, Brined, or Marinated
Recipe #1: Dry Salted Feta
Cottage Cheese
Simple Recipes Are The Best
Before you go thinking that goats cheese baked in tomato sauce sounds a little boring, let me reassure you that often, simple recipes are far, far better than recipes that add a load of unnecessary ingredients just for the sake of it.
If you know my recipes at all, youll know that I hate unnecessary faff!
So if all you need to make an incredible meal is some tomato sauce and some crumbly soft goats cheese thats a-okay with me.
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Blueberry Goat Cheese Scones
Lets kick things off with these blueberry goat cheese scones, AKA, the perfect way to start the day.
When you have one of these scones for breakfast, you know youll have a great day ahead.
Where do I even begin? These giant scones are super fluffy.
Each bite is filled with sweet blueberries and creamy goat cheese crumbles. These two together are a match made in heaven.
As if that wasnt great enough, the scones are finished with a sweet blueberry glaze. Besides the shiny purple hue, it also tastes incredible.
Goat Cheese And Cremini Oatmeal
For a savory start to your morning, try one of our favorite combinationscremini mushrooms, creamy goat cheese, and chopped fresh thyme. Creminis, more mature than your basic white mushroom yet still younger than a portobello, are the ultimate counterpart to soft goat cheese in this bowl of oats. If you can’t find cremini, however, your favorite mushroom variety will do. Thyme adds a fragrant, herbaceous aroma that makes this dish super fresh.
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Ingredients For Goat Cheese
So lets gather everything that we are going to need before we start this goat cheese tutorial
Goat milk we are going to need raw goat milk. I am going to use 2 quarts of raw goat milk in this recipe. You can double it if youd like to process a gallon of milk.
Chevre culture cheese culture comes in the form of powder. Culture is specific bacteria strains that are put together by a culture company for making cheese. Cultures are pretty similar to each other but are classified based on the temperature in which they work. If you want to read more about the basics of cheese cultures, make sure to check this post. We are going to use a dash of chevre culture in this goat cheese recipe.
Rennet rennet is used to coagulate or thicken the milk. You can use either vegetable rennet or animal rennet, it doesnt matter. We are going to dilute 3 drops of rennet in 1/3 cup of cool water and use just a tablespoon of the mixture.
Salt I usually salt my cheese a bit. You dont have to but if you choose to salt your goat cheese make sure to use non-iodized salt like cheese salt, sea salt, or kosher salt.
Suitable Cheeses For Warm Goats Cheese Salad
The best cheese to use is ripened goats cheese which has a rind and creamy centre that melts when heated. Ideally the cheese comes in small discs around 5 6cm / 2 2.3 thick, or a log / barrel form that you can slice accordingly. The reason is you need rind encasing each slice otherwise the cheese runs everywhere when you pan-fry it.
The following cheeses are all suitable and can be sourced within Australia:
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Crottin des Deux-Sèvres Similar to the aforementioned Crottin de Chavignol, according to the chef-owner of my wonderful local French deli Le Petit Marché in Sydney. This is the cheese I used.
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Crottin de Champcol The pasteurised version of the Crottin de Chavignol and can be found in Australia.
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Picandou and Pico Affine Picandou is especially ideal because each round is the perfect size to pan fry as-is, without slicing in half. Also, since theyre fully encased with rind, they are easier to handle! Pico affine are a little large, so serve 1 per person. Available in Harris Farms, Sydney.
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Chabichou du Poitou Another cheese from the Loire Valley.
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Le Chabichou dAntan Available at Le Petit Marché, Sydney.
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Holy Goat La Luna An Australian ripened goats cheese. Available at Harris Farms and elsewhere.
Other French ripened goats cheeses that could be used include Pélardon and Rocamadour. These may be tough to find in Australia.
- Picandou is ideal to use for this recipe.
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Cheesy Beginnings With Happy Endings
All in, I spend about 10 minutes of work making chèvre. It takes the better part of the day for the culturing, renneting, and drying to happen. Thankfully though, I dont have to be around for any of that. I can be off in the garden, out with the goats, or otherwise engaged around the homestead.
Thats why chèvre is a great place to start your cheese-making routine. However, once you understand the basic process of making cheese, youll discover that just about every cheese type can be made in only a few minutes, here and there, within the context of your other activities.
Some cheeses may take specialized equipment or require more work for proper aging. Fundamentally, cheese of all kinds is something we can all make and enjoy at home. Bon Appetit!
Best Goat Cheese Recipes
From pizza and pasta to truffles and cakes, here are 21 goat cheese recipes for you to try.
Goat cheese is a versatile ingredient that can be incorporated into a whole gamut of dishes.
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Crumbly, creamy, and mildly salty and tangy, you can simply spread it on a cracker and call it a day.
If youre looking for ways to improve a dish, it wont let you down, either.
Because its flavor isnt too overpowering, its a perfect addition to a wide variety of treats, may they be sweet or savory. Youll never run out of ways to enjoy it.
Give your dishes that extra oomph with goat cheese!
From appetizers and sides to entrees and desserts, these goat cheese recipes are all must-tries.
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Walnut Honey And Thyme Goat Cheese Toast
The Spruce
The elegant tastes of a party cheese board come together in this easy toast that makes a great breakfast idea, or savory snack after work. Slather toasted bread with goat cheese, scatter with chopped walnuts and fresh thyme leaves, drizzle with honey, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Ingredients You Need And Variations
- Fresh goats milk: Its best to use full-fat goats milk , avoiding anything ultra-pasteurized, as it wont curdle the same way. You can use raw goats milk if youre able to source some.
- Citric acid and water: This is what I decided to use as my curdling agent because I have it in my kitchen after lots of DIY-ing. However, if youre new to cheesemaking and want options that you probably already have in the house , then check out the FAQ section for more information.
- Cheese salt : This is a non-iodized salt perfect for cheese as the lack of iodine means that it wont inhibit the needed cultures/bacteria within the cheese. You can use sea salt as well, but only add after the cheese had curdled and drained.
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How To Make Whey
14. Now you need to hang it over a bowl to catch the whey. I hang mine on a wooden spoon that I stick through the handles of my upper kitchen cabinets. Not super professional looking, but it does the job )
Let your cheese strain for 6-8 hours. I strain mine for 8 hours.
15. After your cheese is done open your cheese cloth and dump the cheese into a small stainless steel bowl. Stir the cheese with a spoon to break up the chunks. By stir I mean mash!
16. Add at least a tsp ofsea salt or pink Himalayansalt to your cheese and mix it in really well.
You can add as much salt as you like to reach the desired flavor, but make sure you add at least a tsp. I use about two teaspoons of pink Himalayan salt.
And thats it! Put your cheese into containers and store it in the fridge. You can use plastic containers or freezer bags, but I find that the cheese lasts longer if you store it in glass containers.
One final note I want to add is that weather and altitude can affect the outcome of your cheese.
You might need to play around with the amounts of buttermilk and rennet that you add to your milk.
I live in Florida and this cheese turns out perfect here! But like any other recipe, the temp of your home and the altitude can affect it.
Try to keep your home temperature within the 72-78 degree range while your cheese is sitting as well.
I hope this helps you to know how to make goat cheese!
Adding Chevre Culture And Rennet
Once the milk reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit, I remove the pot from the heat and turn the heat off. Then, I add 1/16 teaspoon of chevre culture and stir it until it dissolves in the milk
Next, I dilute 3 drops of rennet in 1/3 cup of cool water, and add one tablespoon of the diluted rennet to the milk.
Again, I stir it in well.
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French Goats Cheese Salad Other Ingredients
Heres what you need for the rest of the salad plus the dressing:
Some notes on a few of the items:
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Oak lettuce This salad can made with all sorts of lettuce. Oak lettuce works particularly well because of the soft leaves, which have an elegant shape and sit nicely at the base of the bowl.
Lambs lettuce would also work well. Alternatively use also cos / romaine lettuce , or even iceberg cut into bite size pieces.
If using oak lettuce, leave the lettuce in larger pieces that you then cut when eating. If cut into bite-size pieces the lettuce is so soft it will flatten under the weight of the other toppings
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Tomatoes I prefer the look of tomatoes cut into wedges rather than rounds here, and its how they came when I had this dish in France But any type of tomatoes will work here cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes etc
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Walnuts and pine nuts Toasted nuts littered across the salad brings texture and another layer of taste that is part of what makes this salad so good! Dont skip them, and dont skip toasting .
Non-nut substitutes: Sunflower seeds or pepitas and
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Balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil If youve ever wondered why even the simplest salads at restaurants can be so good, the answer is the quality of the vinegars and oils they use. It really makes a difference to elevate basic dressings. So use the best you can afford we dont use much in the salad dressing!
Butternut Squash Pizza With White Sauce Spinach And Goat Cheese
This pizza pie is anything but a snooze. Sweet butternut squash and leafy greens round out this fall-inspired pizza that the whole family can get behind. Save time and energy by buying the pre-cubed butternut squash and pre-made pizza crust, and you’ll be surprised at just how quickly this tasty dinner will come together. Try swapping out the goat cheese for feta or Gorgonzola to switch up the flavor profile.
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Caramelized Onion And Olive Pizza With Goat Cheese
Sweet caramelized onions form a creamy pizza sauce. Intense spices make chicken kicken. Peppery arugula dressed with lemon vinaigrette complements this rich pizza. Toss 4 cups arugula, 1 cup rinsed and drained unsalted canned chickpeas, and 1 shaved carrot with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, and 1/8 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
Prosciutto Fig And Goat Cheese Toast
Rather than using canned fig preserves, we used whole figs for this toast and paired it with a creamy goat cheese spread and thin slices of prosciutto. This combination makes for a delicious lunch, or serve it on smaller pieces of toast for a beautiful appetizer.
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Baked Goat Cheese With Tomatoes
At the top of the list of our best goat cheese recipes: baked goat cheese! If youre looking to distract party guests with a finger food they cant resist, this is it. Our most well loved of these goat cheese recipes, something about the tangy cheese roasted in a sweet, garlicky roasted tomato sauce that keeps everyone coming back for more. Serve it with bread to dip and it tastes like deconstructed pizza!
In This Stupid Simple Whipped Goat Cheese Recipe Tangy Chvre Is Whipped Up In A Food Processor With Cream Cheese And Aromatics
If you were wondering if goat cheese could get any better, well, it can. In this stupid simple whipped goat cheese recipe, tangy chèvre is whipped up in a food processor with cream cheese and aromatics. This is the best thing you could possibly do to goat cheese.
This recipe makes for an easy appetizer that you can literally whip together in just a few minutes. Its a go-to for when youre planning your next get-together and short on time. If youre like me, this is also a perfect opportunity to dip bread in cheese and call it dinner.
I dont know the secret to happiness, but using a piping bag to swirl this creamy whipped goat cheese onto crostini hits close to home.
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Cook For One Or A Crowd
This baked goats cheese recipe can easily be adapted to cater for any number of people either just one, or a whole crowd. For more people, just use a larger dish and add more sauce and goats cheese, or make everyone their own little portion .
Youll want to be pretty generous with the cheese. Although a recommended serving of cheese is only about 30 grams , thats going to feel like absolutely nothing when its making up 50% of this dish so you do need to use more than that per person.
I never said this dish was light, and its not something youll want to make every single day , but if youre going to make it for a treat, you may as well do it properly.
Choosing Soft Fresh Goat Cheese
Soft fresh goat cheese is but one style of cheese made from goats milk. These cheeses, which are from a few days to a few weeks old, are sweeter and milder than longer-aged types. The other basic stylessemisoft, surface-ripened, and hard agedare generally better suited for eating out of hand than for cooking.
Sample different makers and styles. At a good cheese shop, youll find a wide array of soft fresh goat cheeses . Many are imported from France, but there are also wonderful domestic goat cheeses from local farmstead producers that are worth seeking out .
At the supermarket, the pickings will likely be slimmer, perhaps one or two varieties. If you have a choice between what looks mass-producedgaudy plastic packaging is often the giveawayand what looks more artisanal, go with the latter.
The most widely available fresh goat cheese is mass-produced French Montrachet. Although it may be lacking somewhat in personality, Montrachets consistency and subtle flavor are assets in many cooked dishes.
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