Itty Bitty Hooves

Taking The Cheese Plunge Once Again

I’m about to go in the kitchen and try my hand at mozzerella again. I think one of my problems doing this is that I have the confidence that comes with experience, but it’s ancient experience.

Here’s what I mean. Last time I tried it fell miserably flat. The first time I made it a week or so ago it was good, but not really quite right. I couldn’t grate it. I had rushed it.

You see, a beginner would be oh so cautious. Making sure everything was done exactly the way directions state, and reading the directions very carefully due to their nervous fear because making cheese seems like it should be so hard.

Someone with experience making cheese knows 1) It’s not really that hard to do. And 2) most cheese receipes are the same with a few small variations, but the process is incredibly similar with each kind. and finally 3) even if you botch it up, it’s usually good for something.

I learned my lesson last time that 3 isn’t always true.

MY problem is I have past experience that tells me 1 and 2 are, and gives me the confidence to boldly go about what I’m doing even if I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to carefully measure each and every ingredient, and so on and so forth. Relying on memory for the amounts and steps rather than pouring over the recipe cards that I may as well look at since I have them, but am doing things to fast to bother.

My past experience gives me plenty of confidence… but it’s so far in the past that my ‘memory’ isn’t always as accurate as I’d like to think it is.

Now I’m not so old that my memory has totally failed me. Many of the recipes, those I’ve printed here over the last couple weeks, worked out just fine…

My favorite of all though–Mozzerella eludes me.

Maybe today.

Goofed Cheese

Well, I tried again today to make mozzerella and it kicked my butt. I’m not exactly sure what I did wrong, but I do know I was rushed. Cheese is such a delicate thing. There are so many ways to make it, and most of them are easy enough, BUT they require enough concentration and time that you don’t just throw something in without being sure of what you’re doing. Usually even ‘ruined’ cheese can be used in some way. For instance my mozzerella that I made for lasagna last week. I rushed it and it wasn’t perfect, but it still tasted great in the dish. Sometimes, however, like this morning, it is just ruined. It didn’t even firm up like cheese. Now like I said, I was rushed. I put in too much rennet. I really didn’t think too much about it though, figuring it would just be ‘harder’ than normal. If that was the reason though… no, it wasn’t.

Sometimes you’re going to goof, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Easy Pudding

I’m making cottage cheese again today. Along with mozzerella it’s my favorite cheese to make. I made some pudding yesterday for desert. I like that too because it doesn’t take a whole lot of milk the way cheese does, and it tastes fantastic. It’s easy too. Here’s how you make fast, easy, goat’s milk pudding.

EQUIPMENT
sauce pan
pudding cups (or dishes, or a big bowl)
whisk

INGREDIENTS
3 cups goat milk (any milk)
3 tbsp corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter

Separate eggs, and beat the yolks. Mix the sugar and corn starch in saucepan and pour in milk. Heat and whisk until slightly thickened. Pour about one cup of milk mixture into beatten egg yolks. Stir well and return to saucepan milk mixture. Return to heat and bring to slow boil while whisking often until thick (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat. Add vanilla and butter, mixing well. Pour into bowl, or pudding cups. Refridgerate about 2 hours.

Easy as that–and delicious.

Mozzerella

Well I did make the cheese today. I rushed it though and it didn’t end up being firm and hard and stretchable… however I put it in a lasagna for dinner and it tasted just fine. In fact it tasted wonderful. That and the farmer’s cheese I made yesterday along with it. I only used half of the farmer’s cheese though and the rest I divided into two half pint containers and flavored one with dill, and the other with onion. I think I’ll have some of that for dessert on a few crackers. I was going to make pudding but didn’t have time.

Today’s Cheese

I’m making mozzerlla today. I’m never quite sure if I’ve spelled that correctly or not, but as cheeses go, it was ALWAYS my favorite to make. It’s just fun. Basically it starts out like all the rest, but the end step requires stretching, and pulling like taffy. (Making taffy is great fun too). I’m not going to post this to the recipe files just yet because to be honest I am doing this one just from memory and am not sure how my ‘recipe’ will turn out. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Hopefully it will work out well because I plan on making lasagna tonight for dinner with the cheese I made yesterday, and the mozzerlla from today for the cheese parts. Wish me luck.

Sweet and Tart Yogurt

Yesterday I also made a batch of sweet yogurt. To be honest I found it to be a little bland. My ’sour cream’ yogurt had more kick and I think even as yogurt I liked it better. The basic recipe is the same. You need:

one saucepan
A whisk
one quart goat’s milk (will work with any regular milk if necessary)
one tbsp starter culter or existing yogurt
one packet unflavored geletin (if you like thick yogurt. If you like thinner which is great for smoothies, leave out the geletin.)
1/4 cup sugar if you want the sweet variety

Heat the milk in the sauce pan to 80 degrees. Stir in the tbsp of culture, geletin and sugar if desired. Whisk well. Pour into quart jar and seal. Put in the oven (off) for 8 to 10 hours to incubate. (The oven should be warm enough from the pilot light). Remove and place in refridgerator 4 to 6 hours at least. When finished it has a thick, firm custard-like appearance if geletin is used, or a thick milkshake type consistancy if no geletin.

Eat plain or with fruit, or honey.

Great Cottage Cheese

I finished my first batch of cottage cheese in many years yesterday and had some for dinner. OH was it good! Fresh, homemade goat’s milk cottage cheese beats store bought by a mile! It’s so easy too. I’d like to share the recipe with you. If you don’t have the luxury of owning a goat to make cheeses with, you can make it with store bought whole milk (or 2%, or skim if you desire low fat, or fat free versions).

You need:
one large pot with lid
candy/milk thermometer
a whisk
cheese cloth, or a clean pillow case
a bowl
rennet–I prefer liquid rennet but that’s harder to find if you’re not going to make cheese all the time it’s not worth the hassle of finding it. You can get ‘junket rennet’ tablets in most grocery stores in the baking aisle where they have custard and ice cream supplies.
1 cup buttermilk
one gallon of milk
long knife

Note: This receipe requires very little actual cooking time, but LOTS of waiting time. So do it on a day you’ll be home all day, or in the evening when you’ll be home in the morning to finish the process.

First pour the gallon of milk into the large pot and slowly bring to 90 degrees. While you’re doing that dislove 1/4 tsp liquid rennet, or 1/4 tablet of junket rennet in 1/4 cup cool water. Then pour in the buttermilk and the rennet mix into the milk and whisk thoroughly.

Cover the pot and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours (or overnight).

The milk is set when you take a spoon and cut a piece and it comes out holding it’s shape with nice crisp edges to the cut.

At that point take a long knife and cut the cheese diagonally, and then horizontally in roughly 1/2 inch sections.

Cover and let the curds sit for an additional 30 minutes.

Warm the milk to 115 degrees slowly and keep it between 115 and 120 degrees for 30 minutes.

Pour the cheese into the cheese cloth, or pillowcase. (If you want to save the whey — the discarded broth from the cheese–to make ricotta put a bowl under the cheese cloth and put the cloth in a strainer). Let the cheese drain for 30 minutes.

Dip the cheese (still in the cheese cloth or pillowcase) in warm water and drain 5 minutes.

Dip the cheese (still in cloth) in cold water to rinse and drain.

Put cheese in bowl and salt to taste while breaking up the curds.

Viola–perfect cottage cheese for you and your family.

Milk Happy

I am having such a great time with all this milk I’m getting from my dairy goats.

This morning I have already made Yogurt, and have enough milk from last night and this morning still to make pudding for later, and cheese.

I’m a little nervous about the cheese. This is will be my first attempt to make cheese in many years. Over the past week I’ve made pudding and yogurt several times, but I finally have enough milk to make cheese too and still have several quarts to drink.

My girls dropped a little in production this morning, but I’m hoping it’s just because 1) I shaved them down yesterday and it was a bit traumatic for them, lol. The best one was Savvy. She’s the one I would have thought would give me the most problem and she was just a princess about it. Alex was pretty good, but now is spooky about everything. It will probably take her a bit to settle again. Polly was horrible. That really surprised me. I thought she would be the easiest. They never fail to surprise. 2) It figures that the moment I decide to shave because it’s been so hot, the temp dropped and it stormed all night. That never sits well with them. So I got a quart less this morning than I usually do, but it’s still plenty. Hopefully they’ll pop back up to their normal three quarts per milking tonight.

Yogurt

I’ve been getting tons of milk lately. Hard as it is to believe, even more than Bob and I can drink–which is saying a lot. I haven’t made cheese in so long I didn’t have any rennet or citric acid (the two ingredients necessary to make my favorite, mozzerrela cheese), or even just the rennet for making soft goat cheese which is great to spread on crackers or bread. I’ve ordered them but it will probably be a few days before they get here. Soooo I decided to try something new. I’ve never made yogurt before not even way back when we had the goats years ago. So I am today!

I heated a quart of milk to 120 degrees then mixed in a packet of unflavored gelatin (not necessary, but whole milk yogurt tends to be runny otherwise. Great if you like smoothies made with yogurt, but not so hot if you like thick yogurt to eat, or spoon on top of baked potatoes — my favorite way to eat yogurt), and I mixed in a heaping tablespoon of culture (in this case, store bought yogurt) and set it to ripen for 8 hours. It should be done around 8 tonight! That batch makes 1 quart of yogurt. From now on since it’s started I can just save a heaping tablespoon from this batch to start the next. Since I hadn’t made any before I needed the store bought yogurt to get it going. Yogurt is a bacteria (healthy bacteria lol) that cultures the milk. Now I’m all set for my next batch without anything but the gelatin from the store–I like it thick.

Good Girls Do

I have to tell you I just love my new dairy goats. I’ve only had them a few weeks but they are giving us a gallon and a half of the best tasting, sweetest, creamiest milk every single day.

Usually when you buy a doe (female goat) that is already producing milk and move her to a new location, she will drop production. Sometimes only a little. Sometimes completely. Neither of the two I bought did anything of the sort. They are both producing exactly what the seller said they were at her farm.

Not only that but they are the sweetest girls. I have a third I brought home from the same seller, but she hasn’t kidded yet. That means she hasn’t had her babies yet, so he’s not producing milk. She’s due around the 28th of this month and I’m so excited to see the first goat babies born on this farm in many years, and anxious to begin milking her as well.

A goat has to have babies to produce milk, just like any other mammal. So every year they must be bred and have babies. That’s no problem because Mickey is waiting in the bullpen. LOL He has the two girls I just brought home last weekend with him now, and in July when I’m ready to breed him to the younger girls I got with him I’ll rotate him out into their pen, then in October I’ll take him out of there and put him in with my dairy girls. Then by January I’m hoping my youngest kids will be ready to meet Mickey. So I should have some nicely spaced babies next year, and Mickey should have female companionship for most of the year round–win, win.

Of all the goats, only two more, the youngest of the bunch here are dairy and will be taken over to the dairy side after being bred. All the rest are Boer, or Boer percentage and will stay on that side, just raising their kids, not being milked. A total of five goats to milk a day is plenty for me, and should provide plenty of milk both to drink, and to make cheeses and soaps.

I’m hoping to have soaps to sell at next years farm markets along with the kids.