How to Make Cheese from Goat Milk

It’s very easy to learn how to make cheese from goat milk! With the right ingredients and a little instruction, you’ll be making your own goat cheese in no time.

You can make beautiful goat cheese like this at home.

Below you will find information on the supplies needed to make your own goat cheese, followed by instructions for making a simple goat cheese.

First things first – you need to gather your ingredients and equipment. Cheese making doesn’t require that you buy a lot of supplies, but those that are required are important!

While goat’s milk may be easy to find if you live in a rural area, it might be tougher to find in large cities. Thankfully goat’s milk is experiencing a renaissance lately, and more and more health food stores and even large-scale grocery stores are stocking it.

For making cheese, you do not need to use raw goats milk – pasteurized milk will work fine for most of the cheese you’ll want to make. You cannot used ultra-pasteurized goats milk, though, as the proteins have been denatured by the extra-high temperatures used to treat the milk. If you used ultra-pasteurized milk, you will not get a good curd and your cheese project will not turn out.

A note on freshness: the fresher your milk, the better your cheese will taste. Try to buy milk as close to the bottling date as possible. If you can get raw goat’s milk from a farm, your cheese will be all the better for it!

Depending on the type of cheese you’re making, you will need one or a variety of lactic cultures (milk bacteria). These are good bacteria that essentially “digests” the milk and turns it from a liquid to a solid in the form of curds and whey. The cultures necessary for making specific cheeses are often sold in sets so that you can easily shop for what you need under one name, such as mesophilic starter.

Rennet is a combination of enzymes that grow in the stomach of mammals, though a vegetarian form is also available. When rennet is added to milk, it aids in the coagulation of milk proteins and helps to form a curd. Not all cheese require the use of rennet.

Here’s a cheese making tip: keep your rennet and cultures in the freezer. They will last substantially longer at freezing temperatures than they will in the fridge – up to five years longer!

Goats make great cheese!

Since most goat cheeses are soft, you will not have to worry about buying a press. You will, however, need a mold and some cheesecloth. Molds come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and most types of cheese have a traditional shape that they are formed into. As for cheesecloth, you will need a special kind of cheesecloth that has a finer weave than what you find at the grocery store, such as butter muslin. If you use a looser weave to hang and drain your cheese, you will lose your curd through the holes right along with the whey.

Here is a simple goat cheese recipe that you’ll love! The total amount of actual work time required is about half an hour.

1 gallon pasteurized goat’s milk
1/4 teaspoon powdered mesophillic starter
1/16 teaspoon single strength liquid rennet

Large non-reactive saucepan
Instant read thermometer
Small non-reactive bowl
Cheesecloth
Colander
Large non-reactive bowl

In a non-reactive saucepan, heat goat’s milk over a medium heat until it reaches exactly 75F. In a small bowl add starter, rennet, and 4 tablespoons of warm goat’s milk and mix well. Gently stir the starter mixture into the warm milk, cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight.

The next day your cheese should have set a firm curd. With a long knife, cut curd into a 1” grid pattern, making sure to cut all the way to the bottom. Line colander with two sheets of cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Transfer curd mixture to colander, cover, and let stand overnight at room temperature until all of the whey has drained from the curd.

Discard whey and store cheese in an airtight container for up to two weeks. This cheese goes particularly well mixed with herbs such as truffles, thyme, or chives.

Here is a list of links for your cheese making enjoyment:

• CheeseMaking.com was started by Ricki Carroll, the Cheese Queen. This site has everything you need to make your own goat cheese, from supplies to recipes.
• Ricki’s book will help you make all sorts of cheeses, from simple soft varieties to complicated hard cheeses.
• Leeners is another place you can go to buy cheese supplies.

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