Milk, Cow, Skimming Off Cream - Amount To Retain

[ConnieG]

Right now I've been making Gouda and cheddar cheeses. I am wondering how much skimming I should do to my cow's milk before cheese making.  I get about 3" of cream on the top of every 1/2 gal. jar which I generally ladle off and use for butter.  This leaves a little cream line left on the milk.  Should I be adding maybe a 1/2 gal. of milk with the cream left to a 2 gallon (2 lb) recipe? (Or 1 gallon whole cream milk to 4 gallon - 4 lb recipe?)

[susanky]

Wish I knew! I have similar questions.  When you have a little cream line left is that now about 2%?  Or if it was about 5% to begin with (Jersey cow) and I took off 3/4 of the cream now it must be much less than that?  Or is there still enough in the milk to contribute to that number?  I wish there were a meter!

[MrsKK]

I've never made gouda, but when I make cheddar or colby, I leave all of the cream on the milk.  I tried using 3 gallons of skimmed milk with two gallons of whole, raw milk to make a batch of colby once and ended up with 1/3 less curd than I normally do.  Now I leave all the cream on for these cheeses.

[Brentsbox]

Thats what I do too.  I have just started leaving all the cream in and shaking it all up and dumping 2 gallons in the pot for what ever I am making.  My mozz is awesome and melts so beautifully on pizza and is nice and stringy when you bite into it.   I just did a provolone with it that way this morning too.   Im looking forward to seeing how it does this way in some other cheeses.  I have some gouda in the carve right now that i did that way but its not ready.  I say, just try and see what happens.  Thats how I learn more than anything.

[ConnieG]

Thank you all.  Well, I guess I have a couple of lbs of butter saved up anyway.  I get nervous that my cheddars won't be good after all the waiting 

If I want more cream I'll have to get the conditions right for parma making 

[Brentsbox]

Ive never tried, but I would think that you could make Parmesan from the left over butter milk(the milk left over after you make the butter) .  It seems to be pretty thin like 2%.   I guess it take a lot of buttermilk though to get enough to do even a 1 gallon batch.   

[ConnieG]

I hadn't thought of cheese using buttermilk!  My family doesn't drink it and when I'm cheese making I don't have time for baking. 

[DeejayDebi]

When I make gouda I don't skim it at all I like the creaminess of a full 5% butter fat gouda! I only skim for parmesan and provalone for the most part.

[MrsKK]

Buttermilk can be added to the milk used for cheesemaking, but if you only use buttermilk you won't get much of a yield, as most of the proteins are no longer present.

I make a fake parmesan from skimmed milk that is allowed to clabber.  Make sure that you start with good clabber and allow it to get really thick without disturbing it.  Then cut it and heat as for a "regular" parmesan recipe.  This has good flavor at 2-3 months and only improves over time.

[DeejayDebi]

I don't know why you call it fake parmesan Karen. I seriously doubt our forefathers had commercial cultures to make their cheeses from. I made parmesan in  a very similar way for almost 30 years. After about a year they are very close to the commercial variety. That is one cheese that really lends itself to homemade cultures very well.

[MrsKK]

I guess I call it fake because it is so easy to make and no rennet needed, in comparison to recipes I have used for making parm.

My son and his wife didn't notice any difference when they were here to visit!

[ConnieG]

I really like this idea.  Not only frees up space in the milk fridge, but I get to keep the cream for butter. And we love parma!

[DeejayDebi]

I guess I call it fake because it is so easy to make and no rennet needed, in comparison to recipes I have used for making parm.

My son and his wife didn't notice any difference when they were here to visit!

That's just what I was taking about. Many cheeses don't require fancy cultures and they are perfect cheeses. Give your self some credit girl!