Author Topic: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis  (Read 2169 times)

psearle

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My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« on: July 27, 2014, 11:46:38 AM »
A couple of years ago I made a few attempts to make a Chevrotin with my goats' milk but the results were rather disappointing.  I've tried again this year and I'm very happy with the results so far. 

This is the second one of the pair made in the first batch in mid June.  We opened the first at 30 days old; it had a very supple pate with a pleasant taste.  The second was opened at 42 days; the pate was just as good and the taste had improved enormously.  I have another 4 cheeses from a further two batches maturing now; these were made 12 days and 6 days ago.  With all three batches I put the BLinens SR3 in the milk with the starters and the cheeses were hand washed every two days just in 5% brine (no additional BL) and kept in a wine fridge at about 14C in a climate box to keep high humidity.

Offline Boofer

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Re: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2014, 01:20:41 PM »
Congrats!

Looks like a tasty little cheese.

A cheese for your fine effort and success.

-Boofer-
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Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

psearle

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Re: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2014, 10:47:25 AM »
Thanks Boofer

The younger cheeses are now developing nicely.  I kept them in a climate box with one from the original batch and made sure when I hand washed them in brine to do the oldest first.  Their surfaces are coming along much more quickly than the first so I have high hopes.  I shall be making another batch of this next week and, hopefully, every two or three weeks for the next two or three months.

Regards

Peter

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Re: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2014, 07:18:48 PM »
Peter, that is a beautiful looking cheese and I'd like to see how your recipe compares to that Yoav (iratherfly) posted as a goat's milk version of his Reblochon

Chevrotin (goat Reblochon) from Yoav

To convert, make Chevrotin, pay attention to these following steps which are crucial, some of which you may be familiar with from Reblochon:
- Milk at 92°F/32°C (+/- 4°F/2°C, depends on season and room temp)
- Cut curd large (1/2"), stir gently, cut again, stir gently. You want to repeat that 2-4 times over a period of 15 minutes until curd is "corn grain" size
- Re-heat milk to 93°F/34°C and cook/stir gently for another 15 minutes
- Once whey is removed to curd level, pour curds to cheesecloth-lined colander to pre drain (Not more than 5 min).  Curd should be warm and drained - not dry.
- Mould curd quickly before it cools down. Press slightly in the mould by hand
- Drain in moulds for 12 hours minimum (turn once or twice if possible)
- After salting, dry at 55°F/13°C (cave temp) but at 75%-80% Relative Humidity -not 95% like the cave or aging container) at least 5 days (turn regularly)
- Age minimum 21 days after drying. Age up to 6 weeks (95% RH / 55°F/13°C), turn regularly, wash every 2 days until color shows, then let the Geo bloom

1. 7.5 litres of raw goats’ milk
2. Pasteurise the milk by heating to 66C and holding at that temperature for 30 minutes
3. Reduce temperature rapidly to 30-34C and hold at that
4. Sprinkle on to the milk ¼ tsp MM100, 1/16 tsp TA62, 1/16 tsp Geo15, 1/32 tsp SR3 and leave, covered, for 5 minutes to rehydrate.
5. Stir in the starters for 1 minute
6. Leave for 15 minutes then stir in ½ tsp of 33% CaCl dissolved in 2 tbls of water
7. Leave for a further 15 minutes to complete ripening
8. Add  2 ml (24 drops) of single strength animal rennet in 2 tbsp cool water and stir in deeply for 1 minute and then top stir for 2 minutes.
9. Put sterilised container on milk for floc test.  Floc target is 15 to 20 minutes from adding rennet
10. After 4x time to floc, cut the curds to ½”
11. Stir gently, cut smaller, stir gently again then rest over 5 mins
12. Again, stir gently, cut smaller, stir gently again then rest over 5 mins
13. For the last time, stir gently, cut smaller, stir gently again then pitch curds and leave 5 minutes (curds should be corn grain size)
14. Reheat to 34C and stir gently for 15 mins at that temperature.
15. Remove whey down to curd level then pour into c/cloth lined colander and let drain for not more than 5 minutes
16. Put curds into moulds quickly while still warm, pressing slightly by hand
17. Drain for 12 hours minimum turning once or twice
18. Take from moulds and dry salt
19. Dry at 13C RH 75%-80% for at least 5 days turning regularly
20. Age 21 to 60 days after drying 13C 95%RH  turning regularly and washing every 2 days until colour shows then let Geo bloom

To get the firmer cheese, use a taller form factor so it doesn't age like a Reblochon or Camembert. The rind doesn't affect the paste so much.  Another factor could be the addition of naturally-stabilizing culture such as TA.

Yoav’s Reblochon recipe, adapted
Two gallons of this mornings fresh Nubian goat milk.
1/4 tsp Flora Danica
1/8 tsp MA 4001
1/8 tsp PLA
12 drops single strength calf rennet diluted in water

Heated milk to 94 degrees.  Starting pH 6.54
Added bacteria cultures (went out to dinner last night so didn't have time to make a mother culture) and ripened 30 minutes.  pH 6.50
Added rennet and got a floc time of 10 minutes (darned goat's milk coagulates quickly)
Cut at 25 minutes (2.5 floc factor)
First cut at 3/4" and let rest five minutes.
cut to pea sized pieces with a whisk.
Stirred for ten minutes until the curd was springy and would mat when squeezed.
pH is 6.4
loaded into two reblochon molds.  (last time I did this I used 1.5 gal and the wheels came out thinner than I wanted.)
first press for 30 min with 3 pounds per wheel.

Kitren
before goats, store bought milk = chevre & feta, with goats, infinite possibilities, goatie love, lotta work cleaning out the barn!

psearle

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Re: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2014, 08:16:45 PM »
Hi Kitren

A couple of years back I had a forum conversation on Chevrotin with Iratherfly and his advice was very helpful.  Despite this I still found it impossible to make such a cheese satisfactorily.  A goat keeping friend who makes a little soft cheese was given a copy of "The Fabrication of Farmstead Goat Cheese" by Jean-Claude  Le Jaouen but said that she found it too technical and basically unreadable so she kindly passed it on to me.  To illustrate different types of cheesemaking the book gives fairly detailed instructions on making Sainte-Maure, Crottin De Chavignol and Chevrotin Des Aravis.  I used these instructions supplemented with information from this forum and elsewhere to make the Crottin and the Chevrotin and was very pleasantly surprised by the results.

For the Chevrotin I used 11.5 litres of previously frozen raw milk and 3.5 litres of milk from the morning and the previous night's milking.  This was very lightly pasteurised at 60C for 30 minutes then cooled and put into my bain marie cheese vat. 
With the milk at 29C I sprinkled 1/8tsp of MM101, 1/16tsp of TA62, 1/32tsp of GEO 17 and 1/64tsp of B. Linens SR3 onto the milk, left it for 5 minute then stirred it in for 30 seconds.
30 minutes later I stirred in 1/4tsp of calcium chloride diluted in half a cup of water. 
15 minutes later I added 3ml (36 drops) of rennet in cold water in stirred this in for 20 seconds.  I put a sterilised lin onto the milk to test for the flocc point.
The flocc point was reached 13 minutes after the rennet added giving me a curd cut time of 4 x 13 = 52 minutes.
After the 52 minutes I cut the curds with a curd cutter and a spatula into approx 3cm cubes and stirred these gently for 5 minutes.
I then used a whisk to cut the curds smaller and stirred these again gently for 5 minutes
I used the whisk again to reduce the curds to about the size of wheat grains and stirred gently for another 5 minutes.
Throughout all the above steps the milk temperature had remained at 29C.
I then switched the bain marie heater on intermittently and stirre the curds to raise the temperature to 34C over 15 minutes (actually I overshot and ended at 35C).
I stirred for another 15 minutes with the curds at 35C then pitched the curds and left them for another 15 minutes to settle.
I then took out most of the whey over the curds using a tomme mould as a sump and pulled the curds up to one end of the b.m. with a piece of cheese mat allowing me to remove more whey.
I packed the curds into 2 cloth lined basket moulds the put these on a rack inside the b.m. to drain.  I put followers on the moulds and small jars of warm water weighing 500 gms onto each follower.
After three hours I reversed the cheeses in the moulds and put them back again in cloth and with weights.
After another 6 hours I reversed the cheeses again but without the cloths and put them back with the weights to stand overnight
The following morning, 7 hours later, I removed the cheeses and dry salted them with 1/2tsp salt for each face and for the sides.  The cheeses weighed 662 and 664 grams, were 11-12cm diameter and 5cm tall.
The cheeses were then put into a small climate box with the lid off and put into my cheese cave at 10C to dry off.
At the end of the day the cheeses were reversed in the box.
The following day the cheeses were put onto wooden boards in the cave for another day. 
The cheeses were surface dry, very elastic and "springy" and were then moved into a wine fridge at 15C in a tray and given a 3% brine bath.
3% brine baths were repeated every 2 days for 2 weeks and the cheeses were moved into a climate box with the lid adjusted to keep a humidity of around 95%.
One cheese was tasted at day 30.  It was very soft and supple with a clean and pleasant but rather mild taste.

I've since made another two batches of Chevrotin and these are now 9 and 15 days old.  You can just see the "blush" of b. linens starting to develop on one in the picture of the two batches below.

Hope the above makes some sort of sense.

Regards

Peter

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Re: My attempt at a Chevrotin des Aravis
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2014, 10:37:50 PM »
Thanks for the detailed make notes, Peter.  I'll have a look at the book's version also and Yoav's.  Too bad I didn't remember it was you who had had that 'conversation' with him as it would have given me more perspective!  :-[

Kitren

before goats, store bought milk = chevre & feta, with goats, infinite possibilities, goatie love, lotta work cleaning out the barn!