Comments on: Goat’s Milk “Muenster” Cheesemaking Update

By: Dovid

Dovid — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:27:04 +0000

I agree, the cheese looks great. I have been making a few cheeses also using New England… and have had some good and bad luck. I use fresh goat milk from my neighbor and at present and making the Fresh Goat cheese that Ricki has in her kit. I have had very good success with this cheese especially if you have a Yogotherm to keep the temp even. I have not had consistancy with the chevre that is a direct set. Sometimes good sometimes not at all.

I regularly make the lemon cheese and find that if I let it drain for about 4 hours and then do a light press on it overnight in the fridge I have a nice Mozzerella looking cheese that tastes very nice. I generally don’t use salt in the cheese as I don’t like it, but do add on top for those that want it.

I am making my first HARD CHEESE from store bought milk, with calcium chloride and rennet. been sitting out drying for 4 days, will let it develop a nice rind and they coat in oil and let it sit in fridge for about 3 months. Hope this will come out well.

Keep up the good writing and happy cheese making.

Kativa vChatima Tova
Shana Tova

R’Dovid
Beit Meir, ISRAEL

By: curd-herder

curd-herder — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 20:17:28 +0000

You don’t mention salting here anywhere. A few other thoughts. How did you determine when you had a clean break? I gather that vegetable rennets tend to produce a more brittle curd so you might try using chymosin (the active enzyme from calf rennet, now being produced by fungal and bacterial processes) which I know is available with a hechsher.

Perhaps a larger issue is that if the goat milk has been ultra-pasteurized (as the generally-available stuff here tends to be) the proteins will have been largely denatured which will give you a terrible curd structure as the normally long protein chains that bind it together will have been broken up.

Another thought is that if the cultures were already in the milk when you started heating it, such a rapid rise in temperature may have harmed their growth which would mean lower lactic acid production and thus poor curd formation as the acidity is required for propper setting. You might try and monitor the acidity with litmus paper or the like.

The breakup of your curds is what led to the crumbly texture. As for the flavor, it’d take a fair bit of work ina cheese like this to overcome the goatiness. Additionally, muenster is traditionally a smear cheese, witht he orange outer coating being a layer of b. linens growing on the surface. Factory-made muenster tends to just have was as the coating and they do other things to it to make it muenster-ish tasting. I haven’t studied up enough on it to know what you should smear it with to encourage the growth of these particular bacteria though.

Also, whatever the recipe may have said, I’m fairly sure that traditionallu muenster is *not* pressed - it is packed loosely into perforated containers to drain under its own weight. Pressing it takes out too much of the moisture. These are the problems you run into with home cheesemaking books (much like all the “cheddar” recipes that don’t involve the process of cheddaring).

Just a few thoughts.

By: mcaryeh

mcaryeh — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 17:04:57 +0000

But at least it looks beautiful!

By: drfugawe

drfugawe — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 11:24:47 +0000

Jabbett,
Yes, I should have surmised that if your cheeses could look as good as they do, you wouldn’t be trying to make them in an aluminum pot! I too use the New England Cheesemaking rennet, and have noticed a less than expected curding - so perhaps that, and the goatsmilk too, are contributors. I’d try a bit more rennet and see.

As I intimated, I’m a pure novice at this, but have done TONS of research and feel ready for some of the more exotic stuff - I’ll try a blue built from a simple farmers cheese next. It should only need 2/3 months aging.

I have done a few fresh cheeses that have turned out well, and I especially love making cheesecake with the simple Queso Fresca, rather than the cream cheese type.

I’ve also made both the cultured and the “vinegared” fresh cheeses (the first melts, the latter does not!), and have pressed a few successfully to a sliceable stage - the cultured had a nicer taste.

I’m looking for a used fridge at a good price to put in the garage and use for cheese aging - although I could probably get away with just putting it on a shelf in the garage in our SW Oregon winter with similar results!
John

By: jabbett

jabbett — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 22:15:44 +0000

Oh, I was careful to find a stainless steel double-boiler, so unless its box was egregiously mislabeled, the loose curds probably stemmed from the not-quite-double-action rennet or the plain fact that I used goat’s milk, which, like homogenized cow’s milk, is known for producing less substantial curds.

Thanks for the advice, though. Half the fun of cheesemaking is making connections with other cheesemakers! Have you had success with any “hard” cheeses that don’t require months to age?

By: drfugawe

drfugawe — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 17:21:33 +0000

As a fellow cheesemaker, I’ve been following your cheesemaking adventures. Let me immediately tell you that because I’ve had more than my share of non-curded cheese attempts, I’ve become an expert in using whey and curdled milk in creative ways! Your last attempt looks pretty nice, so you must be making headway. However, based on my own lessons learned, please allow me to ask a question re your chosen pot. The pic of your pot looks like aluminium. Is it aluminium? If it is, that could be the reason for your weak curds (aluminium reacts with the normal activity of milk acids during cheesemaking which inhibits the usual lowering of the acids, thereby causing soft or no curds). Most cheesers use stainless steel pots, but actually, any non-reactive surface will be OK.

If I have misspoken, just slap me up the side of my head, and I’ll stop. Good luck with your ongoing cheese adventures - it’s fun, isn’t it?
John