Goat Milk

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

Paneer (also spelled Panir)  – a cheese originate and made in India. Paneer is also called Queso Blanco (kay’so blan’ko) (white cheese) in Latin America. It is a bland cheese that is kind of rubbery and will not melt.

 

Paneer is sometimes called “Vinegar Cheese” because vinegar is used as an “acid precipitant”, that is, the acid of the vinegar (along with higher heat) makes the curds separate from the whey. The cheese cannot be made using low temperatures.

 

A wonderfully tasty food source and excellent meat extender. You can actually, sprinkled with seasoned salt and serve as a snack . It is also one of the few cheeses that freezes well, so you can stock up for the dry times.

 

 

 

 

How to make Paneer

 

 

Paneer is easy to make and there is so much you can do with it. Paneer  is perfect for “first timers” but even the more advanced can try it or try it again. It is quick and simple to make, and takes very little special equipment.

 

Instructions:

 

You can use as much goat milk as you’d like, 1 gallon or much more as long as your pot is big enough. Do not use an aluminum pot. Over direct heat, warm the milk to 183°- 185° (not any higher), and maintain that temperature for 10 minutes. Stir it often to keep it from scorching and if it does scorch, use a stainless steel scrubby to clean your pot later.

 

With the milk still on the heat, while stirring, add about 1/4 Cup of white vinegar per gallon of milk. It taste better with white vinegar than cider vinegar. You do not need even to measure the vinegar, just pour in a glug, stir, look, pour in a glug, stir, etc. until the curd separates. The separation should happen right away. When the curd separates cleanly from the whey (it will look like very fine, white particles floating in the greenish whey), pour it into a cheesecloth lined colander and put the colander over another pot to save the whey for later use. Use real cheese-making cheesecloth and not the ones you can buy at the grocery store.

 

Tie the corners of the cloth together and hang the bag to drain for a few hours. Refrigerate your cheese after it has drained. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

 

 

 

Now that you have this rubbery ball of cheese, what do you do with it or how do you enjoy it

 

Well, Paneer is like tofu,  it will take on the flavor of the food it is cooked with. Just cut it into bite-sized cubes and throw it into chili or spaghetti.  If you love pasta cooked in whey you can always save whey just for this purpose. Try serving your chili over vermicelli cooked in whey, topped with a sprinkle of cheese, some sprouts and a dollop of goat yogurt.

 

You could use Paneer as a meat extender or replacement. If you are a vegetarian, you can use a lot of Paneer. You make “chicken a la king” using cubes of Paneer instead of meat. A quick dinner is mac’n cheese, made from a box, but also add onions, Paneer cubes, peas and buttermilk. When you make taco meat, cut it up in tiny cubes and simmer it with the meat for about an hour.

 

You can also marinade Paneer and throw it on top of salads or use it in stir-fry. Paneer is really in its element when used in curry. Serve the curry over rice cooked with whey instead of water and add a handful of raisins and a clove to the rice as well to make it really authentic.

 

There are endless uses for Paneer, so make some of this quick and easy cheese and experiment for yourself. Enjoy!

 

 

 

More Acid Cheeses Recipes for you. Check them out!

 

 

Modern Ricotta

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

Ricotta cheese is a soft, slightly sweet, mild fresh cheese. Ricotta is similar in appearance to cottage cheese, but has a much smaller, grainier curd and slightly sweeter taste. Ricotta in Italian means “cooked again,” a reference to the fact that it is traditionally made from whey produced from making other cheeses, like mozzarella, feta or provolone. Modern ricotta, on the other hand, is generally made with fresh whole or skimmed milk to which acid is added directly. As a result, most packaged ricottas are a bit fattier and creamier than ricotta made by the traditional method.

 

The original cheese-making process removes the majority of the casein protein from the goat milk (the cheese) leaving behind the liquid whey portion. When left at room temperature, the original inoculating bacteria continue to act upon the remaining lactose in the whey, converting it to lactic acid, and further lowering the pH of the liquid. The lower pH reduces the solubility of the small amount of remaining protein in the whey. Heating the whey then causes the protein to precipitate out as a very fine-grained curd.

 

Each time when you make cheese, you end up with a lot of whey i.e., The nutritious liquid left over from curdled milk when the curds are removed. Whey contains the water-soluble proteins, vitamins, and minerals in the milk. And there are many things you can do with this leftover whey. You can use it in bread baking and soup stock, and even to cook pasta. You can even drink whey plain or sweetened. And in a pinch it can be used to ripen your cheese if you are out of culture.

 

Ricotta is made by using heat to precipitate – separate out the remaining albumin protein from the whey left over from making lactic acid/rennet precipitated cheeses. Usually recipes call for the use of an acid, such as vinegar in precipitating the curds. I have found, that in most cases, due to the fact that you ripen the milk as you make your hard cheese, the whey has enough acid on it’s own and does not need the extra vinegar. I also find that leaving the vinegar out creates a smoother cheese. If you use the vinegar, the cheese will tend to be slightly grainy. Ricotta is not a high yield cheese, but it is worth the effort.

 

 

Traditional Ricotta Recipe.

 

 

• Making Ricotta is very simple. Over direct heat, heat the hard cheese whey to 200°. By the time it has reached this temperature you will see very tiny white particles – the albumin protein,  floating in the whey. The heat and acid from the ripe whey has precipitated the protein. You can add a little vinegar at this point if you really think it necessary ( 1/4 Cup. per 2 gallons of whey), it is up to you as it would not affect the Ricotta.
• Line a colander with very fine cheesecloth, called “butter muslin”. You must use a very fine cloth here, or your cheese will pass through the regular cloth. If you do not have fine cheesecloth, use a clean cotton cloth. Place the colander over a big pot so you can save the whey and carefully pour the whey into the colander. Be very careful because the liquid is hot. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang the ricotta to drain for a couple hours.
• When it has drained, place the ricotta in a bowl and add salt to taste. You will find that the Ricotta made from the whey of different cheeses has different tastes and textures.

 

In my opinion, Feta makes the strongest taste as the taste increases as it ages in the fridge. Whereas, Mozzarella makes the best. Your Ricotta will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Enjoy!

 

* Note: You cannot make Ricotta from the whey left over from making an acid precipitated cheese such as Paneer/ Queso Blanco or whole milk Ricotta. Reason being, you have already precipitated out all the albumin protein the milk has to give using acid and heat and there is nothing left over in the remaining whey to make whey Ricotta.

 

 

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Modern Ricotta Recipe.

 

 

Though it is not traditional but,  it is nice to be able to make ricotta out of plain whole goat milk you can buy at the store. The Ricotta cheese  will be drier and not as smooth and creamy as the traditional  Ricotta cheese. Anyway, it tastes great and can be used as a ricotta substitute in most recipes.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts whole goat milk
• 3 Tablespoons white vinegar or ¼ Cup fresh, lemon juice
• ¼ tsp – ½ tsp salt to taste

 

Directions:

• In a heavy pot, over direct heat, heat 2 quarts of whole goat milk to 200°F. Add 3 Tablespoons of white vinegar or 1/4 Cup of fresh, strained lemon juice. Make sure to bring the temperature back up to 200°F. You will realize that very tiny white particles called albumin protein, floating in the whey. The heat and acid from the ripe whey has precipitated the protein.
• Remove the pot from the heat and set it, covered, to rest undisturbed for about 15 minutes.
• Line a colander with very fine cheesecloth, called “butter muslin”. You must use a very fine cloth here, or your cheese will pass through the regular cloth. If you do not have fine cheesecloth, use a clean cotton cloth. Place the colander over a big pot so you can save the whey and carefully pour the whey into the colander. Be very careful because the liquid is hot. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang the ricotta to drain for an hour or so because the longer you hang it, the drier your finished cheese will be.
• When it has drained, place the ricotta cheese  in a bowl, break up, stir and add salt to taste.

 

The ricotta cheese will keep for about a week in the fridge.

 

You can use your homemade ricotta in almost any recipe that calls for cottage cheese. It can be used instead of cream cheese to make cheesecake. You can also stir in some herbs and eat it on crackers.

 

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