Hi all cheesemakers,
I finally got my hands on 20lt of raw goat milk - straight from the goats!
I decided to pasteurise half the milk and then make exactly the same cheeses with both batches, to get an understanding of differences in curd, taste, volume and final cheese.
All was going well and I had my separate trays of lactic curd, chevrotin, pyraminds and st. maure style all draining, then... disaster struck! I got side tracked the next morning when turning/brining/salting and realised that I had mixed up all the raw and pasteurised cheeses and visually, there was no way to tell them apart.
I gave up trying and simply matured the cheeses according to their style and now, most of them are wrapped and having done a tasting today, the only discernable difference i can see is that some of the various goat cheeses have a very different considency to others.
For example, with the little chevrotins, about half are lovely and plump with a little geo ripple on the surface of the white mould but the other half spread more during aging (think a small brie shape) and on tasting today, the cheese was very soft... so much so that as soon as it was cut, the cheese paste was literallly liquid and just ran out, whereas the other cheeses which look better, also have a firmer paste that can be cut.
Similar for the St. Maure. They both look good but one is distinctly firmer than the other (one was raw, one pasteurised but i don't know which is which).
I have noticed a stronger flavour in the runnier cheeses.
So... does anyone know if it would be the raw milk that contributes to a much runnier texture (almost as thought it has been aged too long - they are only 2 weeks old but look and taste as if they are at the very end of their best eating time).
I would think (from my limited experience) that the raw milk cheese would age faster and be more susceptible to other conditions whereas the pasteurised cheese might lack some flavour but would be more stable and with a more reliable result.
Can anyone please assist with advice in this area....
Thanks so much,,
TAMARA