John's Cheese #032 - Chevre #1, Fail

[Cheese Head]

Today I start my first Chevre making with my mom Jean, who's visiting from Vancouver Canada.

MAKING

• Jan 24, 2009, 11:30AM: Left 1 US quart/0.95 litre of store bought ultra pasteurized homogenized whole goat's milk sit on couter top to reach room temperature.
• Jan 24, 2009, 12:30PM:
  • Poured 1 US quart/0.95 litre of store bought ultra pasteurized homogenized whole goat's milk from fridge into small stockpot.
  • As milk pasteurized, to standardize, trickled and whisked in 1/8 teaspoon diluted CaCl2.
  • Measured ~0.10 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100 onto mini digital scale, tapped off onto top of milk and whisked in.
  • Measured ~0.10 gram CHR Hansen Brand powdered rennet onto mini digital scale, tapped off into 1/4 cup cool water, stirred to dilute, then trickled into milk while whisking in thoroughly for another 1 minute.
  • Covered and set aside for culture to grow and curd to set.
• Jan 24, 2009, 10:00PM: Curd looks like set, whey around perimeter and on top from curd shrinking.
• Jan 25, 2009, 9:30AM: 22 hours since start, Cut Curds, very soft.
• Jan 25, 2009, 11:00AM: 23 hours since start, minimal shrinkage of curds, decided to ladle carefully into hoop to gravity drain. Curds falling apart and extruding out bottom and of holes in hoop, stopped ladling when only half full as higher curds means more pressure on lower curds cauing continuous weeping of curd out of camembert holes.
• Jan 25, 2009, 9:00PM: 33 hours since start, still minimal whey expulsion, gave up flushed down drain.

NOTES

• Poor curd set with Ultra pasteurized Goat's Milk, even with extar CaCl2 and extra Rennet.
• When make again, double the CaCl2 and double the rennet, or preferably find a better source for Goat's Milk.

[Cheese Head]

Pictures #2 . . .

[Tea]

So where did you get the goats milk from?  I certainly hope this turns out for you.

My apologies, I just reread your post and you used UHT milk.  I hope you had more success than I did.  Lost 10ltr of UHT milk, even added extra rennet and still didn't even get a thin custard set.
Watching this with interest.

[Cartierusm]

You know I have to do it, right John.

Comments on pictures go here...

[Cheese Head]

Carter, ha, OK you had to do it. Yep I will post snaps when get time, and have something to show .

Tea, actually it's Ultra Pasteurized which I understand is one step higher than Pasteurized but one step down from the worst for making cheese, the maximum Ultra Heat Treated (UHT).

It was from the local HEB Grocery Store, I reached to the back of the single cue and got the freshest I could, was 1 month younger than the carton at the front .

First time I've ever used Goat's Milk and so far very poor set , going to leave overnight and see if I can get a Clean Break and then cut in the morning.

FYI is was USD3.43 for a quarter US gallon, vs USD2.99 for a whole gallon of cow's pasteurized milk .

[Tea]

Yep that sounds like what I got too.  Rule of thumb when using goat's milk is to up the rennet addition a little, but even with double the addition rate, I still got nothing.
1 ltr of UHT milk here is over $4.00, it was an expensive failure. 

[Cheese Head]

Tea, I remember your post . Which is why I'm only trying with a small volume.

I used almost double the CaCl2 and about 60% extra rennet to my normal.

I just checked it at 11 hour mark and there is a reasonable curd set with a litle whey around circumference! Didn't check for Clean Curd Break, will do in morning.

[Cheese Head]

Spoke too soon, cut curd this morning, waited 1.5 hours, no shrinkage of curds/expulsion of whey, tried ladling into hoop to gravity drain, curd way to soft.

Any advice appreciated to try and save it.

[Cartierusm]

John, all I do when that happens it pour the whole thing into chees cloth that is sitting in a 5 gallon bucket and then hang the cloth so it drains the whey but keeps all the bits.

P.S. Sorry I didn't realize the pics were up and it was that runny. Not sure what to do. Did you say this was UHT, becasue if so that combined with the Goat milk being naturally homogenized, I would think it would be impossible to get a set.

[Cheese Head]

It's Ultra Pasteurized Goat's milk, not UHT and it's already draining in the Camembert hoops which is similar hanging in a bag.

I've asked the family if we should use it up in a milk based home made soup, no takers, and we have no cat so down the drain it's going . . .

[Cartierusm]

Well that sucks.

[Cheese Head]

Down the drain it was flushed last night, thus not fulfilling it's "leap towards immortality" :'(.

[Cartierusm]

At least it wasn't a large batch.

[Tea]

Ok well get this for a piece of advice.  I was just having a read through my cheese book yesterday while having lunch and came across these couple of lines at the end of the Rennet section:

"Avoid using over heated milk with rennet.  Rennet will not coagulate UHT and overpasteurised milk".     

What?? so why do they then go on to say that UHT milks can be used successfully in cheese making???  So if that true, and from our failures it appears to be, what then is used to set UHT milk.  The book certainly didn't go on to explain that.

mmm I think this needs looking into.

[huffdaddy]

FYI is was USD3.43 for a quarter US gallon, vs USD2.99 for a whole gallon of cow's pasteurized milk .

I've seen goat milk in the store here.  KRW5,000 a liter, which is about US$3.50 a liter.  The low temp cow's milk I've been using is around KRW2,800 a liter, or $2.  Almost US$8 a gallon for milk.