Margaret's First Chevre

[mstrecke]

Hello all!

I would like to share with you the follies of my most recent cheese making endeavor.

One of my family’s favorite dishes is herb roasted beets with chevre cheese melted on top.  The sweetness of the beets, with the creamy, tart-sour sharpness of the Chevre are a marriage made in heaven.  So Chevre was a no brainier as a cheese for me to make.

I was excited to have found a store by me that sells raw cow and goat milk.  I rushed home with my gallon of milk and pulled up a recipe I found on the web that just called for the milk and vinegar.

I started off with a mistake.  I read the temp to reach prior to adding the vinegar as 119...  when in fact it was 190 - 200.  I realized this mistake a few seconds after adding the vinegar.  With 15$ spent on milk, I decided to just quickly bring it up to 190 without scalding it.  Rather than turning into a solid puck needing to be sliced with a knife to make curds, they just kind of self formed while I was bringing the milk to 190.

Once it hit 190, I mixed in 2 tablespoons of salt and let it sit for an hour.

I then drained the whey, and hung the curds to drain some more for another 12 hours.

Based on a recommendation of another web page, I then processed it in the food processor with a blade to get is a little creamier, then packed it into a bowl and placed in a fridge.  I honestly do not think that it made much of a difference in texture. 

First taste was nothing like the chevre I bought in the store.  It was very mild.

I let it sit for a week, and it started to gain a very subtle amount of the flavor I was looking for but still no wear near what I was wanting.  I ended up using it in a lasagna with chard and caramelized onions.  It was pretty good, but still would have liked more flavor.

Since it is a soft cheese, how much aging is needed to get a stronger flavor?  Or should I be using a mold or rennet rather then vinegar?

Any comments or ideas are very welcome!

Best wishes,

Margaret

[Cheese Head]

Hi Margaret and thanks for the story, I of course have never made a mistake , sounds like it worked out fine in the end . I have yet to make Chevre so hopefully others will advise. Meanwhile, 1) the simple Chevre recipe posted here is very similar to yours and it says flavour matures with age, and 2) if you Search on Chevre you will find several others posts on it, although I could see nothing specific to your question.

Let us know if it does gt better with age!

[Tea]

Hi Margaret, how lucky are you, being able to buy fresh goats milk.  Chevre is the French word for goat, and I am beginning to think that the word is used universally to just mean a cheese made from goats milk.
Fetta and halloumi are traditionally made from goats milk, but I have found a number of cheese at the supermarkets all labled chevre, and they are all different.  I have a couple of recipes in my book, one called Chevre the other Chevrotin and both call for the use of rennent and a culture.  One suggests rolling in ash to soften the flavours, and other suggest adding extra cultures and wrapping in bacteria linens for the traditional rustic style cheese.
From looking at your recipe, it is almost identical to a whole milk ricotta.  I wonder if leaving it sit at room temp for a few hours would sharpen the flavours.  Just thinking out loud here, as I haven't tried this cheese.  Maybe the cheese you are trying to replicate has had cultures added to it to give the stronger flavour.
Anyway, I hope you finally work out the cheese flavours that you want.