Raising Goats Naturally

by Deborah Niemann

  We are not the most orthodox cheese makers. We use thick-bottomed pots on a gas stove, and while stirring gently, we turn the flame off and on as needed to achieve the desired temperature. You should probably use a water bath on an electric stove because electric stoves are slower to respond to temperature adjustments. If you have an induction stovetop, you need the water bath because an induction stovetop gets extremely hot very quickly and the high heat can damage the milk at the bottom of the pot.

  Cheesecloth: This is used for draining some cheeses and for lining a cheese press when making cheeses like queso fresco, cheddar, and Gouda. Cheesecloth is created with weaves of various sizes. The one you want, called butter muslin, is available from cheese-making supply companies. An old pillowcase or other fabric that is fairly thin and has a slightly loose weave also can be used successfully. Don’t buy the cheesecloth that is sold in the grocery store because the weave is too open. You will drive yourself crazy trying to get the cheese curds out from between the threads.

  Thermometer: Although I have made my easy mozzarella and paneer in a pinch without a thermometer, you need one to make most cheeses. A standard cooking thermometer that reads temperatures from freezing to boiling will meet your needs.

  Spoons: A large long-handled spoon is used for stirring the curds. It should be long enough to easily reach to the bottom of the pot you will be using.

  A large long-handled slotted spoon is used for scooping the curds out of the whey.

  You will need a set of measuring spoons, and the set needs to include a ⅛ teaspoon measuring spoon. Although you can make do with a basic set, you might want to add measuring spoons for 1/16 teaspoon and 1/32 teaspoon if you make mold-ripened cheeses.

  Curd Knife: Specialty knives for cutting curds are available from cheese-making supply companies. Or you can do as I do and use a bread knife. It has a blade that is about a foot long and reaches to the bottom of my cheese pots. A 12-inch icing spatula will also work. Because curds are quite soft, a curd knife does not need to be sharp.

  Cheese Mat: Sometimes called a drying mat, they are made of plastic mesh or bamboo. They allow the cheese to drain by creating space between the cheese and whatever it is sitting on. A cookie cooling rack won’t work for cheese because the spaces are too large and the cheese will slip through. I usually put a plastic drying mat on top of a cooling rack that sits on top of a baking pan that catches the whey.

  Molds: Each type of cheese has a traditional shape, but in some cases, such as chèvre, you can be creative and use whatever shape you want. In other cases, such as when making Camembert, you will want to use a mold that will result in a cheese that is no more than an inch or two thick if you want the traditional gooey inside.

  Cheese Wax: Some aged cheeses, such as cheddar or Gouda, are covered with wax to protect them from mold during the aging process. It might be tempting to put your cheese into a plastic bag and use a vacuum sealer, but this method is not a good option for long-term aging. We have found that cheddar does well for six to eight months in plastic, but after that it starts to get soggy. Cheese wax breathes and allows the cheese to lose excess moisture during the aging process. Cheese that is sealed in a plastic bag winds up with a surprisingly large amount of liquid on its surface.

  Cheese Press: Making most aged cheeses requires the use of a cheese press to force excess moisture out of the cheese. Choose a press that has a pressure gauge because the recipes call for the application of specific weights. Using too much weight will create a drier cheese, and using too little weight will result in a wetter cheese.

  Cheese Cave: Okay, so a cave isn’t exactly a piece of equipment, but it can be. For centuries people aged cheese in real caves or cellars where the year-round temperature was in the low- to mid-50s. A root cellar where temperatures stay in the lower 50s year-round might work, or perhaps you have a corner of your basement to use for aging your cheese. Since most people today don’t have a proper cheese cave, they use a separate refrigerator. A wine refrigerator can be set to the correct temperature, but a typical refrigerator cannot be set above 40°F, so it needs the addition of a special electrical device that the refrigerator plugs into, which will allow a higher temperature than is safe for regular food storage. Whatever arrangement you decide on for a cave, do not start making hard cheeses until you have a proper place to age them. Even if you do everything else right, your cheese will be a flop if it is not aged properly. (Do I have to tell you how I know this?)

  Cream Separator: We lived without one of these for many years. You need it only if you want to make butter or if you want skim milk. Because goat milk cream does not rise to the top very quickly, as it does with cow milk, you will need a cream separator if you want fresh cream. It takes days for the cream to rise to the top, and by then, the flavor of the milk has started to deteriorate.

  Ingredients

  It is almost magical that the tiniest addition of acid or of culture and rennet will create a multitude of different cheeses from milk. However, without the right ingredients, your cheese is likely to fail. And while I almost never admit defeat in the kitchen and have been known to fix dishes that seemed beyond hope, failure in making cheese usually means it’s a good day to be a pig on our farm. For this reason, I recommend using commercial cheese-making ingredients, which are available by mail order from reputable companies.

  Now, you may be wondering where people a couple of hundred years ago bought their cheese-making ingredients when there was no internet. They used rennet from the stomach of a young calf or goat, and they had inherited a porous container, such as an old wooden barrel, that had cheese cultures impregnated in it from decades or centuries of making cheese. I once had a cheese-making student who said her Polish grandmother had an old clay pot in which she made her cheese. Unfortunately, no one knew what happened to the pot. Assuming you were not lucky enough to inherit your family’s cheese-making container, here is what you’ll need to buy.

  Milk: This ingredient may seem obvious, but the real question is whether to use raw or pasteurized milk. A lot of information is available on the risks and the benefits of consuming both raw and pasteurized milk, and I’m not advocating either one unequivocally. As I’ve said on other topics, you need to make the decision that will help you sleep at night. Although we consume our milk raw, we pasteurize milk to make some of our dairy products because the pasteurized milk gives us consistent results. The recipes in this book do not specify raw or pasteurized milk, but keep in mind that the FDA recommends pasteurized milk for all dairy products except cheeses that are aged at least 60 days.

  When pasteurizing milk to make cheese, the milk must be heated to 145°F for 30 minutes. If you are pasteurizing milk to make any of the culture-ripened cheeses, the milk should not be heated above 170°F or you may have difficulty getting a firm curd. If you accidentally overheat the milk, you can go to plan B at that point and make an acid-ripened cheese. When cooking with milk, if a recipe calls for milk to be heated to more than 161°F, the milk will be instantly pasteurized as it passes that temperature. There is no need to pasteurize the milk prior to preparing things like soup or pudding that are boiled as part of the recipe preparation.

  Vinegar or Citric Acid: Before you have cheese, you have to ripen the milk, and for some cheeses this is done with an acid rather than a culture. Vinegar, citric acid, and even lemon juice can be used. Avoid using fruit preservation products from the grocery store. Although many contain citric acid as the active ingredient, they also contain ingredients that you don’t want in your cheese.

  Cultures: There are two types of cultures, thermophilic and mesophilic, and they are not interchangeable. Thermophilic cultures work at a higher temperature than mesophilic ones. Both thermophilic and mesophilic cultures have many varieties, and specific varieties produce specific types of cheese. You may have seen some recipes that called for commercial yogurt or buttermilk to be used as a starter culture, but commercial products may or may not contain enough live cultures to successfu
lly make cheese, and if you wind up giving a gallon of milk to your pigs or chickens, you will not have saved any money. The recipes in this book don’t call for the use of a mother culture, prepared starter, or bulk starter. It simply makes more sense for the home cheese maker to purchase freeze-dried starter cultures. Although you can freeze a mother culture, it lives for only a couple of months, and you won’t know that it’s dead until you’ve had three successive batches of cheddar threaten to explode out of your cheese press. (Do I have to tell you how I know this?)

  Rennet: Without rennet, cheese won’t turn into curds that will melt. Cheese-making rennet is available in tablets or in liquid form. Although tablets last longer, the liquid will last for a couple of years in the refrigerator, and you can purchase as little as two ounces. I prefer the liquid because it is easier to measure than trying to break tablets into the correct proportions. Junket rennet in supermarkets contains about one-fifth as much actual rennet as cheese-making rennet. Although it might work in soft cheese, which needs only one drop of cheese-making rennet, it won’t work in hard cheeses, and it contains a number of unpronounceable ingredients. Cheese-making rennet is available made from vegetable or animal sources, and as a genetically modified version. Its strength — single, double, or triple — is indicated on the product label. The recipes in this book are for single strength, so only use half as much if you have double-strength rennet, and so on.

  Salt: One of my pet peeves about commercial cheese is that much of it is too salty for my taste, so when we started making our own cheese, we used little or no salt. Although this will work in fresh cheeses, you need the salt in aged cheese because the salt works as a preservative. You need a salt that has no additives, including iodine or unpronounceable chemicals. Salt labeled for canning, pickling, or cheese making is usually free of additives, but check the label to be sure.

  Mold: Mold-ripened cheeses, such as brie, Camembert, blue cheese, and muenster, require the addition of mold. Some cheese-making recipes call for the mold to be sprayed on the cheese with an atomizer. But it makes more sense for the home cheese maker to add the mold to the milk mixture, so you don’t need to purchase a spray bottle and mix up a large amount of mold and water that you won’t be using. Mold is available from the same cheese-making supply places that sell cultures and rennet.

  Calcium Chloride: Many recipes assume you are using store-bought milk, so calcium chloride is given as a necessary ingredient. When you have your own goats, you do not need to use calcium chloride. I’m listing it here because if you have other cheese-making books, you may have seen it listed as an ingredient. The recipes in this book assume you are using milk fresh from your goats.

  Lipase: This is another ingredient that you will not find in the recipes in this book. Lipase, an enzyme, is present in raw milk and is destroyed by high-heat pasteurization. It is not necessary in most cheeses, but it is critical to the flavor of many Italian cheeses, such as provolone.

  CHAPTER 14

  DAIRY PRODUCTS

  There isn’t anything easier to make than fermented dairy products, and I doubt there is anything that is both tastier and healthier. You don’t need any special equipment, and if you have your own milk, you only need to buy the cultures. You can make buttermilk, sour cream, and yogurt by adding the appropriate culture and letting the milk set at the right temperature for a few hours. Yes, it really is that simple! You can even replace some of the other dairy products that you may have been buying, such as coffee creamer and caramel sauce.

  Buttermilk and Sour Cream

  Buttermilk and sour cream are made the same way. The same culture is used, but it is added to milk for buttermilk and to cream for sour cream. Buttermilk is the easiest dairy product to make because you simply add culture to the milk, let it sit at room temperature until it has thickened, and then store it in the refrigerator. Sour cream is only slightly more work because you have to separate the cream first. Because goat milk does not separate quickly, this is most easily accomplished by using a cream separator.

  The milk or cream ferments at room temperature, which means you are using a mesophilic culture. Cheese-making supply companies identify which cultures work well for sour cream and for buttermilk. Homemade buttermilk can be used as a culture for making sour cream, but using store-bought buttermilk as a culture may yield disappointing results because it may not contain live cultures.

  Although buttermilk was originally the milk left after making butter, today’s commercial buttermilk is a concoction of milk and chemicals meant to resemble the original. It isn’t necessary to make butter before making buttermilk. Either skimmed or whole milk can be used, but the latter will be much thicker. In fact, some people say it reminds them of sour cream, especially when it is made with Nigerian Dwarf milk, which is especially high in butterfat and milk solids.

  Buttermilk can be recultured if it is relatively fresh, say no more than a week old. To reculture, we empty out the old jar of buttermilk, but we don’t rinse it. Then we refill the jar with fresh milk, swirl it to mix the fresh milk with the buttermilk left in the jar, and then pour it into a clean jar.

  Yogurt

  The process for making yogurt is very similar to the process for making buttermilk, but it uses a thermophilic culture, which needs heat to work. The milk must be at 110°F to 120°F in order to culture. There are a number of different yogurt cultures available, including streptococcus thermophilus, lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, and lactobacillus acidophilus. Different cultures can create thicker, tangier, or sweeter yogurt, and you can experiment to find one that you especially like. Directions usually come with the yogurt cultures along with recommended times for culturing, but you can decide how long to culture it based on your preferences. As it cultures, the yogurt will become thicker and tangier.

  A commercial yogurt maker will keep the milk at the correct temperature while it cultures. But you can also put it into a thermos or set the jar of milk with added culture in an insulated cooler that is filled with 120°F water or that has a heating pad in it that will heat the milk to a temperature in the range of 110–120°F. Be sure to check the temperature of your heating pad first by putting a jar of water in the cooler to see whether the low, medium, or high setting gets the water to the correct temperature range.

  Fruit-flavored yogurt is easily made by adding a tablespoon of your own homemade jam to a bowl of yogurt before serving. I also love adding maple syrup or granola to homemade yogurt.

  You can reculture yogurt, essentially using it as a mother culture, provided the yogurt is not more than a few days old. After a few days, yogurt starts to loose its oomph and won’t make yogurt that is thick and creamy. To reculture, we empty out the yogurt jar without scraping or rinsing and refill it with pasteurized milk. We pasteurize our milk by heating it to 170°F. We let the milk cool to 120°F before adding it to the “dirty” yogurt jar. We stir it up and then pour it into a clean jar to culture. We don’t continue using the same jar because mold will start to grow around the rim after a couple of weeks.

  We made yogurt with raw milk for a year or two, but we found it impossible to get consistently good results when reculturing yogurt with raw milk, which is why we started pasteurizing milk to make it. Others have found that raw milk makes a thicker yogurt than pasteurized, so you will have to see which one you prefer with your milk. Because the natural bacteria in the environment vary from farm to farm, the yogurt made with raw milk will be unique to your farm. And this makes local food unique and interesting.

  Sweets

  In addition to all of the fermented dairy products you can make, you can also make all of the other dairy products in your life, including coffee creamer and caramel sauce.

  Caramel Coffee Creamer

  I turned into a coffee drinker in my thirties when I discovered flavored coffee creamers. Then I read the labels and lived in a state of cognitive dissonance — my taste buds wanted the creamer, but my brain did not want the artificial ingredients. If you love
flavored coffee, the good news is that it is incredibly easy to make your own caramel coffee creamer. This also makes a delicious cup of chai. I like to make this in the spring when we have lots of extra milk, and I don’t mind the cooking time, because it is still cold outside. This is also a great use for skimmed milk left after separating the cream to make butter or sour cream. The skimmed milk version has fewer calories, and I don’t notice a difference in taste.

  Makes 1 quart.

  2 quarts goat milk, whole or skimmed

  2 cups sugar

  ½ teaspoon baking soda

  Put all the ingredients into a pot that is at least a gallon in size and stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar and baking soda. A large pot will contain the foam when the milk starts to boil. Yes, you really do need the baking soda. If you leave it out, the milk will boil over. (Do I have to tell you how I know this?) Be sure to put the pot over low heat on the smallest burner so the milk doesn’t boil over. Once you’ve made this creamer successfully on your own stove, you’ll know which pot to use and on which burner, and it will be a breeze. Check on the milk every hour and stir, continuing to let it simmer on low heat. As the sugars caramelize, the milk will turn tan and then darker. I like it when it is reduced by about 50 percent, but, really, you can decide it is “done” at whatever point it suits your taste. If you want it slightly less sweet, reduce the simmering time. The creamer can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.