Howdy from the Desert Southwest

[pamaples]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Pam and I live in the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have a small farm with various livestock including goats. I have meat goats and milk the mothers in the spring for a while after the kids are old enough to spend the night separated from mom, but this year I am getting a dairy goat –only one- from the local goat dairy. I am already a fairly accomplished yogurt and cottage cheese maker. I have been making yogurt for decades. But I wish to branch out. I will be making cheese for family consumption and will use raw goat milk that I collect every morning and evening.

I want to make a simple sliceable cheese that melts nicely for use in enchiladas, quesadillas, (the Southwest equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich), lasagna, etc. I have already tried mozzarella with mixed results. It tasted good and melted somewhat, but was too dry and rubbery. Anybody know why? Thanks!

Pam

[Cheese Head]

Hi pam and welcome to the forum!

Sorry but I'm not a Mozz maker so have no idea but I'm sure others here will help. As you've probably seen, lots of Mozz posts in the Pasta Filata Board.

I live in Houston and my family and I had a very nice holiday last August in New Mexico including a few days in Albuquerque, great place, did the old town, Sandia Peak Gondola ride and hike at top of mountain.

Again welcome.

[DeejayDebi]

Hi Pam. Can't say I know why your cheese was dry or rubbery but there is a technique known as window paning that lets you know when it's ready. You simply warm and stretch pieces of mozzarella until you get long thread like strings without it breaking. When this happens it will not only melt but become that stringy drippy stuff we love on pizza.

My only "guess" as to the dry stuff you got was maybe insuffcient curd production?

[Cartierusm]

Welcome, as far as a cheese to make from your goats milk not too sure about that, but poke around and you might find something.

[Ariel301]

Hi Pam!

Do you know yet what kind of dairy goat you're getting? We have a mix of LaManchas, an Alpine, and Oberhasli/LaMancha crosses. The LaManchas have a great personality, high production (ours make about a gallon each per day), and really rich milk, so I think they're the best in those regards. I don't care for their weird ears, but otherwise they are my favorite. We keep some kids for butchering, so I'd love to add some Boer genes to our herd someday. There's just not a big selection of goats around here.

I can't get mozzarella to work yet either. For a Mexican style cheese like mozzarella, maybe what you want is Asadero? There's a recipe for it on this website that I tried, but I think I did something wrong because it isn't the right texture. I'll have to try again.

[Cartierusm]

I'd get an Octo/Chan Hybrid. It's a cross between Jackie Chan and an octopus, so it can protect your property and milk itself.

[pamaples]

Thatsa good one!

She is Oberhashli I think Ariel. I am going to give mozzarella another try now that I have completer Dr David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D's cheese course. He published a syllabus for the course on line. I followed it through like school work and now I know a lot more about cheese making. In fact, I think I can make it work this time. Here's the link:    http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/cheese.html

[Captain Caprine]

Hi Pam,
Any Jack cheese recipe will work well with your goat milk and makes great enchiladas.  I like to add a bit of lipase to get a little more bite out of the cheese but it is a great melter.
Good luck
CC