Raw Milk - Using

[huffdaddy]

I found out I can get raw milk from one of my neighbors for 1000 Won (about 65 cents) a liter.  Which is about one-third the price of the milk I usually buy to make to cheese with.  So I'm getting 8 liters and making a batch of cheddar with my neighbor tomorrow night. 

Are there any special procedures?  Should I pasteurize first?  I plan on aging for at least 3 months.  Unfortunately, I don't have a ph meter.  Will that be a problem?  Do I need to add calcium chloride with raw milk?  Any other tips or suggestions? 

[Cheese Head]

huffdaddy

Congrats, you are lucky! I assume it's raw cow's milk? Personally I haven't used raw milk as not easily available in massive suburbia that I live in.

That said, my understanding of raw milk is that as it's not pasteurized it still has "all" the raw bacterias in it and thus is lots better for making cheese.

On Calcium Chloride, my understanding is you only add it to pasteurized milk which removes most of it resulting in a harder to obtain curd set. I built an info page on CaCl2, there's also a thread on it here, also Wiki CaCl2 page says same that used in cheese making where using store bought pasteurized milk, and lastly I do see it listed as an ingredient on quite a few manufactured cheeses (which use pasteurized milk) here in USA.

Hope others will post here with other special raw milk issues . . .

[huffdaddy]

Yes, it's cow's milk. 

Thanks for the info.  I'll try it without the calcium chloride and see how it turns out. 

I lucked out finding my house, as there are a lot of small dairy farms in my area.  Hopefully I'll be able to obtain larger batches of raw milk when my skills merit it. 

[MrsKK]

I use raw milk from my own cow, so I don't worry about pathogens, as I know how healthy she is, how clean I am in my processes, etc.

Since you are getting it from someone else, I think that you will be safe as long as you age the cheese for at least 2 months before you eat any of it (that is what I've seen for recommendations).  That builds up acidity enough to kill any pathogens you might run across.

If you make yogurt, I would be sure to heat it to at least 160 F and keep it there for at least 20 minutes to be on the safe side. 

No other issues I can think of.  I just cracked open a 3-month cheddar that earned some BIG thumbs-up from my friends.

[Tea]

The main issue you will have is knowing whether the milk is "healthy".  As long as you can see the condition of the cows, and you know that they are cared for and clean and healthy, then I would think that you are onto a good thing.
I don't think that you will find that you will need to use cal, as I find the raw milk wonderful to work with.
You can also scoop off some of the cream that comes to the top and make you own butter if you want too.
Let us know what you find.

[thegregger]

Not having a pH meter might be an issue.  Because all the natural (harmless?) bacteria is present, raw milk tends to acidify faster than the stuff I buy at Safeway.  If the acidity is too high, your product will never make the transformation from curds to cheese, leaving you with a crumbly white Feta-like finished product.  Plus, you won't know for months.

I've been there; it's a bummer.

Greg

[MrsKK]

Not having a pH meter might be an issue.  Because all the natural (harmless?) bacteria is present, raw milk tends to acidify faster than the stuff I buy at Safeway.  If the acidity is too high, your product will never make the transformation from curds to cheese, leaving you with a crumbly white Feta-like finished product.  Plus, you won't know for months.

I've been there; it's a bummer.

Greg

I make cheese from raw milk all the time, and don't own a ph meter.  I've never had this problem.  I would guess that the fresher the milk, the less problems you would have with this, although I've used milk up to about 5 days old for making cheese.

[huffdaddy]

I make cheese from raw milk all the time, and don't own a ph meter.  I've never had this problem.  I would guess that the fresher the milk, the less problems you would have with this, although I've used milk up to about 5 days old for making cheese.

This stuff was pretty much straight out of the udder.  Less than an hour old.  The curd seemed to set well, although it was floating on whey when I cut it.  But the pieces held together and seemed to turn out okay.  It's in the press now, and I just flipped it. 

I ended up making gouda, due to time constraints.  We had about 12 liters overall.  So 8 went into the gouda, and with the rest I made some ricotta. 

[thegregger]

Karen:

I'd love to learn more about what types of cheese you make, and also your experiences in general regarding raw milk.  I'd like to try raw milk again at some point.

Also, I stand by my comments regarding the amount of starter culture to be used in raw milk versus store bought.  In fact, Paul Kindstedt talks about this exact issue in his excellent book, "American Farmstead Cheese".  On page 202 he writes, "As a general rule of thumb, if you adapt a recipe from pasteurized milk to raw milk, use one-quarter to one-half  as much culture as indicated as a starting point for developing your recipe".

Greg

[wharris]

Huffdaddy,
What kind of cheese are you making?  I was under the impression that if your resulting curd floated, it was problem due to some kind of a Coliform bacteria, or other, contamination.

I could be be wrong here, but I thought floating curds represented a defect at minimum, and a hazard at worst.


I am open to be being wrong on this one,  i just seem to have a vague recollection on this.

[Cheese Head]

Indeed that is an excellent book, I posted the ToC in our Library but sadly I have yet to read it .

If you'd like to post about the book's strong & weak points, I'm sure it will help some of our members decide (or not) to buy it.

[huffdaddy]

Huffdaddy,
What kind of cheese are you making?  I was under the impression that if your resulting curd floated, it was problem due to some kind of a Coliform bacteria, or other, contamination.

Gouda.  When I checked it about half way through the one-hour set up period it was fine.  At the end of an hour though, enough whey was being expelled to float the curd.

The farmer normally sells to the local milk company, so one would assume they test for things like that.  But you never know around here.  I'll have to have my gf ask my neighbor ask the farmer. 

[huffdaddy]

Finished pressing.  It's in the brine right now.  Is it supposed to float?

[wharris]

In the Brine, absolutely yes.

In the whey?  not so much....

[Cheese Head]

huffdaddy, looks great!

As Wayne says, my pressed cheeses float in brine.

They also develop a slightly hardened rind after brining.