First attempt at a Cabra el Vino

[MacGruff]

I found out that a local small market can get goat's milk from a semi-local farm, if I place an order in advance.

Well!  That opens up a whole new world of possibilities, so I start salivating at the possibilities. I finally settled on a Cabra el Vino that I wanted to make for a while.

The recipe comes from "The Beverage People". It is pretty straightforward. Calls for 2 gallons of goat's milk, and you can see the resulting wheel after the 24 hour soaking in the red wine, and just before it went in to the cave for the two months of aging.

Weight at this point is 1 lb 7 oz.

[bansidhe]

Lovely color there!  I made this using the NE cheesemaking recipe except I used 1 gallon goat and 1/2 of cow. (Recipe calls for 3 gallons so I halved it)  It came out really good..  My surface didn't have the craters yours does though.  I'll have to check out the recipe you used vs that which I used.  Anyway, I have thought about making it again because out was so good even though I didn't do the wash and other missteps. 

[MacGruff]

The milk I got was raw goat's milk, so I skipped adding Calcium Chloride. The curds that formed were super strong! and even after pressing, you see the crevices. I hope that will allow more of the wine to color the paste. I will be opening this one in August, so I just have to be patient...

^-^

[HeidiSnow]

Hi MacGruff,

I love the color.  And, thank you for the idea! My girls are giving me a lot of milk right now so I'm always on the lookout for more goat milk cheese recipes. 

There is probably info in this forum, but I just did a quick Google to see why your curds didn't knit properly.  I found this on the Reddit site:  https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/eykmmx/cheddar_didnt_knit_well_advice/

Oh, and Gavin Webber...I just love him:  https://curd-nerd.com/curd-didnt-knit/

[MacGruff]

Hmm.... the curds getting too cold during milling...

That is the explanation that makes sense as the milling step took quite a bit of time and I was doing it on my kitchen counter!

Something to file away for my next attempt.


As for the color, as you can imagine, that is due to the wine used. I chose to use a dark red blend. It is very inexpensive and surprisingly good. I am not sure where you live, but I have seen it sold around the U.S. for anywhere from $3 per bottle to $5 per bottle. Note that it comes in a box and the box contains four bottles worth!

Here is the link to the wine description:

https://www.botabox.com/global/wines/nighthawk-red-wine-blend.html

[MacGruff]

It's time for the cutting and tasting!


As you can see in the attached picture, it maintained it's beautiful color on the outside. The paste is nice and firm on the inside. The flavor was a bit sour, but mostly creamy and nice. The cracker helped mask the sourness. Not sure where that sourness came from, and on my next make I want to try to resolve the milling problem and reduce the sourness, but overall I am quite pleased with this effort.

Unfortunately, I do not taste much of the wine flavor - even around the rind. Hmmm....

Still happy with the result though === for a first effort!

[bansidhe]

Nice!  I made one..  the wine taste you had to really close your eyes and focus..  But it was there. :-).   Did you use goat Milk?  I ask because your paste looks to have a slight yellow or cream hue and not the pristine white I would have expected.  What kind of wine did you use?

[MacGruff]

I did use two gallons for raw goat's milk. The wine was this one:

https://www.botabox.com/global/wines/nighthawk-red-wine-blend.html

I think the yellow tinge in the photo is due to the photographer.    :-[

[bansidhe]

Awesome!  I am planning to make it again.  I used a Spanish Red Wine before.. Garnacha I believe.  It was pretty yummy as I recall so I really want to make to again.  Maybe this weekend.  :-)