Sheep's Milk - Tips & Tricks For Using In Making Cheese

[SANDQ]

I have acsess to raw sheeps milk, I believe it is between 8/9 % fat. Has anyone any experience in making sheeps milk cheddar, or any thoughts on mixing it with my goats milk to get my goat milk cheddar to melt?

[mtncheesemaker]

I get sheep's milk in the summer and mix it with goat's and/or cow's milk. I don't make cheddar, but use it in Tommes and blue cheeses. It also makes a wonderful mold-ripened lactic cheese.
I use less rennet with it.
I'm not sure, but I think melting is a pH issue. I know I have read discussions about it somewhere.

[spalko]

Actually, the melting issue is a matter of natural homogenization.
Sheep's milk cheeses melt totally without separation due to be 100% naturally homogenized.
The more "other kinds of milk" you add to your cheese, the more separation you will have when you melt it.

Making cheddar with sheep's milk requires for "strength" that with other milk...
by strength I mean if you are hand cheddaring a batch of any size you will develop muscles.   

Sheep's milk cheddars require a LOT of pressure when pressing to get nice knitting.

[SANDQ]

Thanks for all the info guys. 1st I totally agree about muscles, I did hand batch quite alot of sheeps milk cheddar and it was like stirring semi solid concrete
Pam, you said you add less rennet, I noticed with all the bathes I made that even with the correct amount of animal rennet I got from a reputable supplier that, it took about 2 hours each time before the milk coagulatedand longer before I got a clean break. Have any of you got any ideas why this might be?  Also I make 10 L batches at a time any ideas if I were to mix the milk what proportion of goats to sheeps milk I would use?  Thanks    Q

[Cheese Head]

SANDQ, this article has some tricks and traps on using sheep's milk in cheese making and several sheep's milk recipes but not on cheddar.

[mtncheesemaker]

Sorry for the late reply.
As far as the long coagulation time goes, are you using the spinning bowl method to determine  floc time? This will tell you if you are using the correct amount of rennet for your milk. Also, depending on their feed and some other factors, you might want to use a little CaCl.
I mix the sheep milk that I get in the summer as it is quite a bit more expensive. The proportions vary, just depending on what is available. Have you made manchego or tomme? They are both easy and terrific made with all sheep's milk or in combo with a little cow or goat milk added, say 2:1 (sheep:goat/cow).
I also freeze some sheep's milk for winter use.

[SANDQ]

Thanks for the info, Im in a dilema about floc time. When I started making hard cheese a year ago ( cheddar ) I wasnt using the spinning bowl method, as I didnt know about it. As my knowledge increased I started using it, but I found that as soon as I cut my curd it turned instantly milky, and my end product didnt melt. I presumed there was a connection, so I asked on the forum for help, I am not saying I got conflicting answers, but Im still not sure why and how to correct this problem. Eg I was told that floc time is only a guide and a better guide is to cut when I get a clean break. This of course is in relation to my own produced goat milk. I was also advised to change my Rennet to an animal source, which I have done from a reputable supplier. This has left me with another Dilema. When I made a cheddar batch from sheeps milk I got a long floc time as I have said. So I presumed the rennet was no good, as a test I made a batch of soft goats cheese and had no problems with floc time, then I made a batch of goats milk cheddar again no problems with floc time, its not ready to eat yet so I still dont know if it melts. All Im trying to do is get goats milk  cheddar that melts

[mtncheesemaker]

Here are a couple of discussions about melting of cheeses. If you use the search tool for "melting", you'll find some more. It seems like an issue of acidity in the cheese, which may have to do with the long time that it takes you to get a clean break in your curd. I'm no cheddar expert, so hopefully someone with more info will chime in.


http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2403.msg18812.html#msg18812
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2956.msg24173.html#msg24173

[linuxboy]

Melting and stretching are determined by final acidity, acidity at whey drain, and degree of casein degradation due to aging. Without correct acidity levels (determined by pH meter or titration), it is difficult to pin down the source of the issue.

[SANDQ]

Thanks Linuxboy for that, I do have some Litmus paper for PH reading, but it only reads in units of 1 not in points of units is this accurate enough do you think?  Previously you gave me some words in cyrilic ( I will have to transliterate as I dont have cyrilic on my computer )  kiselo milyako- yogurt as a thermophilic starter, this I take it is not buttermik.