MUHAHAHAHAAA.....It's ALIVE, Igor!

[padams]

My attempt to make a chevre from cow's milk/powdered goat's milk is a sucess!! 

Here is what I did......
1/2 gal whole milk
1 qt pkg of powdered goat's milk
mixed together, warmed to about 80 degrees (I was aiming for 72, but 1/2 gal warms a lot faster than 3 gal!)

added/stirred for 1 minute:
1/8 tsp of MA100
1/4 tsp of lipase
1/5 drop of rennet

put the lid on, wrapped it in my neoprene wrapper, put a towel over the lid, and popped it in the oven for 24 hours.  about every 6 hours I would turn the oven onto "warm" for 3-4 minutes. 

After 24 hours, had a thick "yogurt" with lots of body to it.  the curd was pulling away from the edges of my pot.  I put a couple ladle-fuls in each mold, and sprinkled in herbs.....chives in one and shallots in the other.  too much shallots (shoulda used tsp instead of tbsp).  Couple more scoops, more herbs and finished it off.

I let it drain for 2 days.  At first, I DID lose some of it thru the holes in the molds, but not an excessive amount.  I was slightly worried about the smell, and at first the curds were pretty bland.

So after 2 days, I unmolded them, lightly salted all sides, and let them drain a little more.  I wrapped them in butcher paper and put them in the fridge.  After a couple of hours, they had weeped some more whey, so I put them out to drain a little more and......

HAD to try them!  I don't think that I will use the shalllots again, but definatly the chives!  My kids were even impressed!  So, here's a couple of pictures, and thank you EVERYONE for your imput and ideas!  I can't wait to tweak this a little more

[MarkShelton]

Congratulations! Does the 'goaty' flavor come through?

[padams]

Definatly....with the exception of a VERY slight variation in texture (mine is slightly grainier, probably a processing thing) it is exactly like what I have bought at the store!

[DeejayDebi]

Way to go kiddo! It looks great! Powdered goats milk eh? I will have to try this.

[padams]

Thank you so much!  I am having a late-nite snack of some as I check postings.  Yummy!