Author Topic: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol  (Read 32449 times)

Offline DeejayDebi

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I know I probably did this backward for some of you but I have never made a soft cheese. Hey there was no internet when I started and very few books So I made what I liked best.

The cheese is still in process. I started it last night. It is my first goats milk cheese. It is a french cheese called Crottin de Chavignol.  It is my first soft cheese as well. "The flavour of Crottin de Chavignol is subtle and slightly nutty. In its youth, its dough is solid and compact, and its rind is white. As it ripens, the dough becomes crumbly and the mould on the rind matures into a bluish colour. The bluish colour doesn't mean that the cheese is no longer edible - quite the opposite."
 
Crottin means horse dung - It is a little hockey puck looking thing but looked so tasty I had to try it.
 
I have been searching for goats milk since April when I found this recipe. I finally found some in the Willimantic Co-Op but it was lined up under a sign saying $4.85. As it turns out that was for quarts which were all gone. It was actually $8.79/half gallon - YIKES! I must have turned 6 shades of red at the register but I had to try it. If this it not the best cheese I ever ate I will not being making goats cheese again any time soon! 

As it turns out it is not even local it comes from Vermont.   
 
This is an interesting recipe  - alot like making yogurt. Mix it up and set it in the oven overnight to coagulate. The recipe Tim Smiths didn't say anything aout cutting the curds so I cut them big. This is the first decent picture I have gotten of curds - they always wash out from the flash.

FRANCOIS

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2009, 12:40:31 AM »
They look good so far.  You couldn't get milk from Cecile?


Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2009, 12:47:04 AM »
Thanks Francois.  This is all new territory for me! I was thinking I was to rough with it - it looked alot like lumpy yogurt and maybe it was not right. Very gloppy-sloppy stuff.

Still trying Celine. She emailed me and said she can't sell for "human consumption" because she doesn't have a license. I emailed back "What if I don't eat it?" Haven't heard back.

I have called several times but I keep getting her answering machine...  :'(

I hope she is okay ...

pamaples

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2009, 03:29:00 PM »
The goat milk and fresh cow milk I used to buy in NC years ago was labeled "for animal consumption only" and was sold in 1/2 gallon mason jars. There was, of course, a deposit for the jars. This was the only way the farmer could take money for the milk. Nobody had to know I was the animal consuming it ;)

Pam

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2009, 04:49:02 PM »
Weel I did explain that my Dad used to sell and trade raw milk when I was a kid and nobody ever got sick and he didn't have a license. We'll see maybe I will hear soon I don't want to be a PITA.

siegfriedw

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2009, 12:23:58 PM »
You have to understand the liability the farmer is under. Depending on what state she is in it may be totally illegal and she probably doe not want to exposure herself to prosecution. I have been told by a prominent raw milk advocate that the FDA and other ag inspectors watch some of these boards.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2009, 02:12:47 PM »
An Amish farmer here in Kentucky lost his farm earlier this year for selling raw cow's milk. His farm was in Northern Kentucky and he routinely crossed over the river to Cincinnati to deliver to his customers, who were all part of his "cow share" program. On one particular day, he was surrounded in a Cincinnati parking lot by 6 law enforcement vehicles and assorted Ohio agriculture inspectors. Even though the cow share program is legal in every state, they confiscated his milk and arrested him. This gentle Amish farmer actually passed out on the pavement from the verbal beating that the law enforcement gave him while his customers watched in disbelief.

When the case finally came to court, the judge asked why they were picking on this poor farmer and dropped the case. Ironically, he won the court case, but lost his farm because of all the money that he spent on attorneys. So, around here farmers are all jittery about selling raw milk. Stupid law, encouraged by the large milk distributors.

Paradoxically, in Kentucky, the law states that raw milk CAN be used for making cheese that is aged for 60 days or more. However, there is no clear legal process to actually buy raw milk unless you are a licensed cheese operation.

Here is a great website to find raw milk in your state:

http://www.realmilk.com

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2009, 12:01:44 AM »
Thank you that is how I found my raw cows milk. I have contacted ceveral goat farmers but the goats milk is either not available right now from many of them or a few were just as expensive as what I bought but much father away.

I certainly would not want to get anyone in trouble. I will keep looking.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2009, 03:34:36 AM »
You could look for someone offering a "goat share" program if you use a lot of milk. Around here, cow "shares" run around $80 a month (and up) and you get 4 gallons a week. So 16 gallons a month would be $5 a gallon. Non-share prices run $6 a gallon if you can find someone willing to sell to you. I don't use much goats milk, but I'm sure goat shares are more expensive.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2009, 02:54:49 AM »
I found a someone upstate through a friend that will sell me goats milk just have to make arrangments to get to it and it's only $6 a gallon. Much better!

Here are the updates on my little Crottin biscuits. They are still very delicate after 3 days drying. Wow! Hard to move them without squishing the poor dears! My finger prints are all over these things now. No wonder they are lumpy!  :o

I tried salting them with a salt shaker as you suggested and they are getting sticky again. I added the plastic sheeting under them. It is much finer than the craft mat and easier to move them - they don't sink into it.



FRANCOIS

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2009, 09:34:28 AM »
Deb,
Those look a little too delicate for 3 days.  My french compardre makes these little cheeses all the time just for fun in the plant (just 5 gallon buckets of curd).  I cringe when I see him do it because he basically dumps in heaps of rennet and CaCl, gets a concrete set in 5 minutes and hoops.  Sort of like a bull in a china shop, but after 24 hours of draining they are compact, dense little things that he then brines (about 20 min in saturated brine for little "buttons").  Your curd looks good, mind posting the recipe?  The photos remind me of a humboldt fog, so more of a lactic chev cake than the crottins I've had in the past.

siegfriedw

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2009, 11:28:11 AM »
Debby - I would like to see the recipe as well. Those looks good. I have 2 2 gallon batches of Crottin setting right now (from my last two milkings). Hope mine turn out as well.

Francois - could you explain a little more about this lots of rennet method? It was my understanding that Crottin is supposed to use very little and take a long time to set? How long does he let it ripen before adding the rennet? And how long does he let it dry? Any predraining before molding using his method?

FRANCOIS

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2009, 10:35:33 PM »
He uses a bulk mother culture (MM100) at a rate of at least 2%.  He get s pH drop of like 0.2-0.3 in the span of ten minutes.  I suspect he adds loads of CaCl too.  He basically cuts the curd at maybe 2x floc, at the most, then gives it a few hand stirs over 10 minutes and hoops up.  They drain overnight and he brines the next day. 

As an aside many of the old recipes I have found on site at this factory were like that.  They used to add 2-3x too much rennet for bire and cam, cut when floculation occured and send it down to chute to be hooped.  It was alledgedly very good cheese.  I am not familiar with this style of cheesemaking and tend to do things the old fashioned way, lots of waiting. 

His crotins are spot on though.  They are dense, slightly chalky when young and develop nicely, depending on what he adds for ripeners.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2009, 11:41:59 PM »
This is the recipe I used. I found the draining very very slow in those little cups. They clogged up really fast. I got much more whey out after they were removed from the cups. Next time I will predrain in chese cloth before putting the curds into the molds. Much of the draining was while I was at work and I would come home to find them sitting in puddles of whey. I need to make a deeper draining tray as well. More goats milk coming on Saturday!

Crottin de Chavignol -  from Artisan Cheeses by  Tim Smith
Creamy goats milk cheese that have a fruity flavor with an edible rind shaped into petite rounds. Pronounced crow-tan.

Ingredients:
1 gallon goats milk
1/8 teaspoon Flora Dancia
1 pinch Geotrichium candidum
1/8 teaspoon Penicillium candudum
2 to 3 drops liquid rennet dilutes in 5 tablespoons water
1/8 teaspoon calcium chloride

4 crottin molds
straw mats

Procedure:
Warm milk to 72°F
Add starter and mix well, Set for 20 minutes maintaining temperature
Stir in calcium chloride rest for 5 minutes
Stir in Geotrichum candidum and Penicillum candidum
Add diluted rennet and stir for 2 minutes.
Cover and keep milk at temperature, curds will form in 18 to 24 hours although it mat take up to 24 hours for curds to set.
Check the curds for a clean break and ladle curds into molds making sure they are steady when you fill them.
Continue to fill molds as the whey drains off and curds settle to the bottom.
Let the curds drain for 24 hours or until they pull away from the sides of the molds.
After draining is finished, the cheeses are removed from the forms and dry salted with a fine layer rolled or sifted onto the cheeses with flake salt, such as Kosher Salt. Penicillium mold and other mixtures may be sprayed onto the cheese at this point.
Place cheeses into the ripening box and store in the cave at 58°F and 85% humidity.
Remove cheeses from box every other day to remove excess moisture and turn rounds.
They should bloom within two weeks.
Continue to ripen to desired flavor

Yield 1 pound

FRANCOIS

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Re: DeejayDebi's FIRST Goats Cheese and Soft Cheese Crottin de Chavignol
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2009, 11:55:08 PM »
Yeah, that's basically molded chev.  It's not how I'd go about making a crotin, but it should work in theory.  I can see that draining would be  real problem.  Try predraining and salting the curd before you fill the molds, you'll get more whey expulsion.  Your set temp is fine for FD.  The only difference between this recipe and my chev recipe is the prime time is much longer (I did pH 6.2 before adding rennet).