Goat Milk

 

 

 

The recipe is a full-fat version for making cream cheese that uses only goat milk cream. If you prefer a lighter version, you can substitute part of the cream with goat milk. Anyway, I do not recommend using less than half cream, though, in order to get the best flavor and texture for homemade cream cheese. The small amount of rennet used to make cream cheese is what gives it the additional firmness over other soft cheeses such as quark or cottage cheese. *Remember, always add liquid rennet to a few tablespoons of water first and never directly to the milk.

 

 

Ingredients

 

• 1 quart goat milk cream
• 2 Tbsp. cultured buttermilk
• 1 drop double strength liquid rennet dissolved in 2 Tbsp. Water

 

 

Direction:

 

• In a stainless steel pan, warm the cream to about 70° F, stirring to ensure even heating. Add the buttermilk, and mix thoroughly. Stir in the rennet and water mixture, and again mix thoroughly.
• Cover the pot and allow to sit for 24 hours at room temperature. Sprinkle about 1/2 tsp. salt over the mixture, and then whisk lightly to mix.
• Pour the cream into a cheese cloth lined colander placed over a bowl to save the whey for future  use. Let drain for about 12 hours.
• At that time, you can collect the cream cheese from the cheesecloth and place into a bowl for storage in the fridge.

 

 

*Optional – If you’d like a drier, molded cheese, you can place the cream cheese into a cheese mold or a small plastic container with holes in the bottom to further drain and increase the body of the cheese.

 

 

More Cheeses recipes for Beginners. Check them out!

 

 

Ricotta 

 

 

 

What does Queso Fresco means ?

 

Queso Fresco means Fresh Cheese and is semi-soft cheese. I prefer cheese with lots of flavor, and this Queso Fresco has many variations. Queso Fresco is of Latin American origin. It is lightly pressed and ready to eat in just a few days.

 

Correct temperatures are very important in cheese making, so ensure to use a good thermometer. The easiest way to control the temperature of the curds is to use a homemade double boiler. Place the cheese making pot into the canning kettle and place on the stove. Fill the canner with water up to the level of the milk in the cheese making pot. Then place a thermometer in the water of the canner as well as the milk. This way you can tell the temperature of the water, which in turn, helps you control the temperature of the milk and curds.

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 gallons of unpasteurized goat milk

• 4 oz. mesophilic culture

• 1/4 tsp. calf lipase powder (mild “piccante”)

• 1/2 tsp. Liquid rennet dissolved in 1/4 Cup water

• 2 Tablespoons kosher salt .

 

 

 

 

Directions:

 

• Bring the milk to 86° and add the mesophilic culture and lipase. Stir well and let set, to ripen, for 1 hour. Add the rennet and stir briskly for 15 seconds. Cover the pot and let the milk set for 45 minutes, or until you get a clean break. Hold the milk at a temperature of 86° for the entire time.
• Cut the curds into 1/4″ pieces with a stainless steel knife. This always seem to be the trickiest part of cheese making, but take your time, and don’t worry if all the curds are not cut to exactly 1/4″. After you have cut the curds, do not stir them yet. Let them rest, undisturbed for 10 minutes
• Now, you can stir the curds and cut any that you had missed. If you stir the curds with a big wire whisk, this will cut any curds you missed automatically. Raise the temperature of the curds to 95° over the next 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the curds do not stick together. Let the curds settle for 5 minutes, undisturbed.
• Drain the whey from the curds. You can conserve drained whey and use for whey based cheese making like Ricotta. Now, leave the curds in their cheese making pot that is placed inside the canner. Make sure the water in the canner is kept at 95° and this will allow you to hold the curds at a temperature of 95°. Hold the curds at 95° for 10 minutes, stirring with your hand occasionally so that the curds don’t stick together.
• After you have held the curds for at 95° for 10 minutes, stir in the salt. At this point in the cheese making you could spice up your cheese by adding some herbs, such as chives, or even minced jalapena peppers, if you’d like.
• Line a cheese mold with cheesecloth and add the curds. Press the cheese at 10 pounds for 10 minutes, remove it from the press, flip it over and place it back in the press. Continue pressing at 20 pounds for 1 hours and then raise the weight to 35 pounds for 6 hours.
• After it has pressed for six hours, remove the cheese from the mold and let it air dry on a rack overnight. The next day, put it in a ziploc bag or wrap it and refrigerate the cheese for several days before testing. Honestly, it is worth the wait. If you taste the cheese too soon, it may seem “rubbery”. Additionally, the flavor will develops during the short “aging” process.

 

The Queso Fresco cheese will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. My previous experience proved that this cheese does not freeze well.

 

 

Additional Cheeses Recipes,  Click the link to view the details.

 

 

Related topic for you;

 

• Provolone Cheese

 

 

 

 

Besides consuming goats milk daily, goats milk is also used to make soap.

 

What are the benefits of goat milk soap?

 

 

Skin Care

Goat milk soap gives a rich creamy feel and will leave your skin feeling very soft. Most people with problem skin, eczema (atopic dermatitis), acne, psoriasis and other sensitive skin find that after using goat milk soap their skin condition improve. The soap will clean and not irritate your skin.

 

One of the most popular additives to goat milk soap is  handmade soap. And rightly so. Goat Milk is a natural emollient that helps soothe and moisturize the skin. It contains vitamins A, B6, B12 and E. Goat milk has 3 times more beta-casein than cow milk. Caseins are easily absorbed into the skin and allow for quick hydration of dry skin. The content of triglycerides, capric, caprylic and caproic acid helps balance the skin’s natural pH and promotes natural exfoliation of dry skin.

 

Scented or fragrant goat milk soaps are like Floral, Oatmeal, Spice and Fruit Fragrances. Special Dermatological and Manuka Honey (unscented soaps) goat milk soaps are for people forced to use soap substitutes or very neutral soaps because of allergies or skin sensitive to perfumes. According to a survey, the demand for such soaps make up almost half of all sales.  Dermatologists commented that unscented goat milk soaps are particularly good for patients with skin problems because they leave no residue on the skin. These problems include eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis and infant eczema.

 

There are basically three ways to incorporate goat milk into your soaps however, each works a bit differently.

1. Fresh goat milk
2. Powdered goat milk
3. Canned/ Evaporated goat milk

 

 

Handmade Natural Goat Milk Soap Recipe

 

Handmade soap is akin to rediscovering the traditional value of doing things yourself, doing them naturally, and enjoying the benefits.

Making soap of any kind is fairly simple. Goat milk soap is no exception. Homemade soap can be a welcome addition to anyone bathing routine, especially for someone with sensitive skin.

Goat milk soap is a very moisturizing, soft soap and not that difficult to make. Follow some simple instructions and make goat milk soap for home use or to give away as gifts.

Lye and Borax are available at the grocery stores, make sure that the lye can states 100 per cent lye. Before you buy the lye, shake the can and listen to it to make sure it is free flowing for easy handling, and has no lumps in it. Borax – this boots cleaning ability, soften the water and helps with suds-ing. Liquid Glycerin is available at drug stores. Glycerin gives the soap more moisturizing qualities.

Lye heats the milk up very hot; the sugar in the milk will “caramelize” and the soap will be tan in color. Soap made with 100% lard will not lather a whole lot, but make a good cleaning, very gentle, moisturizing soap. Lathering and cleaning ability have nothing to do with one another.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

• 3 pints of ice cold goat milk
• 1 12 oz. can of Red Devil Lye
• 5 1/2 pounds of lard
• 2 oz. glycerin
• 2 Tablespoon borax
• 1/3 Cup Honey

 

Instructions:

 

*Cautions, wear rubber gloves when handling lye.

 

Use a stainless steel pot for your soap making. Very slowly pour the lye into the ice cold milk, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The milk will heat up very quickly due to the addition of the lye. If you add the lye too fast, the milk may scorch and curdle. The milk will turn an orange color and curdle a little bit but do not worry, add the honey. Let the mixture cool down to 85°.

 

While the lye and milk mixture is cooling, warm the lard to 90°. Slowly pour the lard into the lye and milk mixture, stirring constantly, and add the glycerin and borax.

 

The best thing to stir soap with is an electric hand held “stick blender” because you really need to stir the soap mixture to get it to “trace”. The slower your stirring is, the longer it will take to trace. You cannot just stop or go away and let it sit because if you do not stir constantly, the soap will never “trace”.

 

Add the glycerin and borax and keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken like thin pudding nice “traces”. The mixture “traces” when a small amount of the solution drizzled across the top of the main solution’s surface leaves a faint pattern before sinking back into the mass. A trace should be reached within 10 to 20 minutes of hand stirring, or 5 to 10 minutes of stirring with a “stick blender”.

 

Add any essential oils you wish to add to the soap at this point. Stir it in well.

 

Pour the mixture into your molds. Cover the top of the molds with a cloth such as cheesecloth and then cover it with a blanket. Leave it undisturbed overnight.

 

The next day you can cut the soap into bars using fishing line. Stack the bars on a cookie sheet lined with a large paper bag. It is not ready to use yet; the mixture needs to saponify and cure. Let the soap cure by air-drying it for at least 6 weeks before using or giving away.

 

 

Handmade Organic Goat Milk Soap Recipe

 

Since I posted a topic about the benefits of goat milk soap, I have been asked “Do you have homemade milk based soap recipe for beginners?” After experimenting a few shortcuts, I recommend this simple Organic Goat Milk Soap recipe.

 

What are the benefits of  organic goat milk soap?

 

Organic goat milk soap offers a natural and less-abrasive form of cleansing bar. And organic goat milk soap aids in the treatment of mild to moderate acne.

 

Recipe:

 

Light essential oil scent can be added to the soap and oatmeal mix, if desired. The recipe yields approximately 12 bars of organic soap.

 

Ingredients:

 

• 15 oz. organic olive oil
• 5 oz. organic palm oil
• 5 oz. organic coconut oil
• 3.5 oz. lye
• 8 oz. goat milk
• 1/2 cup organic oatmeal
• 1 oz. lavender or lilac essential oil for fragrance (optional)
• Soap molds

*Cautions, wear rubber gloves when handling lye.

 

Instructions :

• Purchase molds. Chocolate or candy-making molds are permissible for use in soap making. Do not reuse molds for chocolate making once used in the soap making process.
• Combine 1/2 cup organic oatmeal with 1 oz. fragrance oil, and set aside. Lavender scent is recommended.
• Mix all remaining soap base materials together in a stainless steel bowl.
• Heat inside a slow cooker on medium heat until melting occurs. Do not reuse the slow cooker for food preparation.
• Mix fragrance mixture into the slow cooker.
• Pour soap mix into molds once it is warm enough to handle safely.
• Cool soap mix for 24 hours. Remover from molds and use. Clean molds with warm water, dry and store.

 

I love making this organic goat milk soap recipe because it is easy, good for your acne skin and shows my love for goats.

Want more fun DIY Skin Care recipes?  Check out my other DIY post as well.