Author Topic: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?  (Read 37833 times)

Offline Boofer

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #30 on: August 22, 2010, 07:38:49 PM »
Cream makes it worse. Cream makes the curd weaker and it will take longer to drain. This is the case for nonhomogenized milk as well. It has to do with the PF ratio. If you add cream and it gets too much beyond 1, the curd will be soft, like stilton curd. If you want stronger curd, add protein (caseins, not whey proteins). Easiest way is dry nonfat milk. So end point is that add cream but no more than is found naturally if you want a good curd set. Naturally holstein milk has about 3.2% protein.

One of my tricks with homogenized milk is to start with a milk that has a low fat percentage, like a 1% or 2%, and then add the best commercial cream I can find to bring the fat content up to 3-4%. This has always set better for me than using regular whole milk.
So it occurred to me that I could do 3 gallons of 1% past&homo milk ($3.69/gal) and add 1 gallon of raw whole milk ($9.99/gal). This would be a more affordable solution that might approach what linuxboy referenced and improve the overall quality of the final product compared to my normal all p&h milk. I'm not certain what the end result would be for the PF ratio. This would also get around the problem of not finding non-ultrapasteurized cream.

Oooh, that sounds like a good plan! I can't wait to try it. But what cheese to try it with? Decisions, decisions....  :)

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #31 on: August 22, 2010, 09:35:36 PM »
So it occurred to me that I could do 3 gallons of 1% past&homo milk ($3.69/gal) and add 1 gallon of raw whole milk ($9.99/gal). This would be a more affordable solution that might approach what linuxboy referenced and improve the overall quality of the final product compared to my normal all p&h milk. I'm not certain what the end result would be for the PF ratio. This would also get around the problem of not finding non-ultrapasteurized cream.

Oooh, that sounds like a good plan! I can't wait to try it. But what cheese to try it with? Decisions, decisions....  :)

-Boofer-
That's exactly what I set out to do yesterday - buy one gallon of raw milk to add to 3 gallons of generic grocery store stuff. But alas the only raw milk I have seen locally was not $5-ish as I had thought, but rather $8.19 for 2 quarts. No way am I going to experiment with a gallon of $16+ milk at my skill level, lol.

If you try that mix, please let us know how that works out, Boofer. I'm very curious and if I knew it worked.... :)

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #32 on: August 24, 2010, 11:26:26 PM »
Go for it Boofer! Should work nicely. I have done this when the ole budget was out of whack (like during tax season) an it works pretty well. Also helps to get my 5% raw milk down in fat for parms.

Mondequay

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #33 on: August 26, 2010, 08:06:34 PM »
Alex, I made the Tzaftit today. I planned to use fresh raw cow milk but ran out of time and used p&h instead. The curds were very soft and it is hard for me to imagine turning this. It seems that it may be a dump and pour situation!  ;) I'm kicking myself a little but at least I know the results and tomorrow I will head out to the farm! Thanks again for the recipe!
Christine

Alex

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #34 on: August 27, 2010, 06:34:47 AM »
Christine, this is the cheese I tried to make from store bought milk with same result as yours. I should have mention: "Don't try this at home" ;).
I'm sure you'll be rewarded using raw milk, it's a very good breakfest cheese.

Mondequay

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #35 on: August 27, 2010, 12:31:27 PM »
Hahaha, Alex, I wonder if I would have listened! It tastes great just not holding together very well. I'm sure we will polish it off with some tomatoes from the garden.

A couple questions:Why are we heating to 72C? Any issue with using less salt? If using fresh milk, do you still use the CaCl?

Alex

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #36 on: August 27, 2010, 03:32:37 PM »
Quote
Why are we heating to 72C?
That's the temp I pasteurize the raw milk.
Quote
Any issue with using less salt?
50-70 gr is a recommendation. I wouldn't use less than 50 gr, because salt acts also as preservative. As salt is added before complete draining of the whey, not all of it is absorbed into the curds. As I stated in the recipe, we like it with 60 gr. Of-course you may adjust the salt per your personal taste.
Quote
If using fresh milk, do you still use the CaCl?
Yes, I use just a pinch (0.8-1.0 gr/3 l milk), because of the 72 deg C.

Offline woodsman

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #37 on: August 28, 2010, 02:57:20 PM »
So it occurred to me that I could do 3 gallons of 1% past&homo milk ($3.69/gal) and add 1 gallon of raw whole milk ($9.99/gal). This would be a more affordable solution that might approach what linuxboy referenced and improve the overall quality of the final product compared to my normal all p&h milk. I'm not certain what the end result would be for the PF ratio. This would also get around the problem of not finding non-ultrapasteurized cream.

Oooh, that sounds like a good plan! I can't wait to try it. But what cheese to try it with? Decisions, decisions....  :)

-Boofer-
That's exactly what I set out to do yesterday - buy one gallon of raw milk to add to 3 gallons of generic grocery store stuff. But alas the only raw milk I have seen locally was not $5-ish as I had thought, but rather $8.19 for 2 quarts. No way am I going to experiment with a gallon of $16+ milk at my skill level, lol.

If you try that mix, please let us know how that works out, Boofer. I'm very curious and if I knew it worked.... :)


It's amazing how it works in less developed countries. Here a gallon of raw milk cost 2.5 USD/gal while P&H store milk goes for 7.75 USD a gallon.

Mondequay

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #38 on: August 28, 2010, 03:09:33 PM »
It is very interesting the price difference, Woodsman. I drove to my local farm yesterday (30 miles) to buy raw cow milk for $6.50/gal and the cooler was empty. I knocked on the door to find out that a "government official" was occupying the farmer and he didn't have time to fill the cooler yet. My husband and I took Louis Pasteur's name in vain all the way back to the car!

BTW, we can buy big name brands here for about $2/gal and a local pasteurized brand for $4/gal.

oyster_catcher

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #39 on: February 06, 2013, 10:28:20 AM »
I'm a newbie too. I haven't yet found non-homogenized milk where I live. This discussion is a great education for me.

So far I tried a lactic acid coagulated curd cheese with Sainsburys organic whole milk and the curds and whey had not separated after 12 hours at room temperature, it was just yoghurt really. So I stirred in 1/4tsp rennet per litre thinking the recipe had oddly missed this out (later learning that rennet shouldn't be needed). Anyway it turned out very well and made a great cheesecake but I'm aware I strayed from the recipe and will try CaCl and low fat milk + cream next time.

On another attempt I tried Sainsburys non-organic Gold Top milk (still homogenized) to make a Coulommiers cheese (from Rita Ash's book), this looked to be a very rich milk. This gave a very good firm curd which I was able to ladle easily. The yield was very high. Like 1/3 curd and 2/3 whey.

Theres a lot of learning and experimenting to do, but its great fun!

Ramon777

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Re: Milk, Cow's - Using Homogenized In Cheese Making?
« Reply #40 on: January 10, 2015, 08:02:05 PM »
Where can I get the zfatit cheese mold. We make our own cheese at home from raw milk and we live in the US.