Cheese

   When I picked up the goats I also bought two gallons of goat milk from the bredder for us to try and make different things with it. One of the things we wanted to try was cheese. I've made many different types of cheeses out of cow's milk before, but wanted to try to make a quick and simple cheese this time. After reading a couple different blogs and books on how to make what  people call Queso Blanco, I combined them to make this simple recipe. It's basically just curds seperated from the whey and squished together.
  
 


  
 I started with a gallon of milk and slowly heated it up to 190 degrees, which took about 20 minutes. Then I added 1/4 cup of vinegar, and kept the temperature at 190 for  15 minutes. I made sure to stir frequently while watching the curds separate from the whey. Once the 15 minutes was up I poured the curds and whey through a colander lined with butter muslin, but a couple layers of cheese cloth will work also. I also made sure to have a bowl under the colander to catch the whey, that way I could feed it to the pigs. I then sprinkled some course salt on the curds and stirred it up with my fingers. Then I tied up the corners of the cloth together and hung it on the faucet to drip off and form into a ball. After about three hours I took it off the faucet and untied. We first broke off some chunks and put it in the salad that night and then put the rest in the fridge where we have been slicing it for snacks and even used in a quiche. All in all the recipe turned out pretty good, it was a very easy, fast, and didn't take anything that we won't have on a regular occasion at the house. Even though it doesn't have any cultures in it, it still tasted good almost like a mozzarella. The only draw back to it is, because it uses vinegar instead of rennet it won't melt when heated. We won't be milking any goat milk until spring, but I think we'll be using this recipe with cow's milk until then.