My whey is slimy, trying to make chevre

[Jeannett]

I've successfully made chevre in the past.  My goats freshened 8 weeks ago.  Milk tastes great. I am using 1/2 gallon of warm fresh milked milk and 1/2 gallon of chilled milk from previous milking.  I combine milk, warm to 80, add culture and rennet.  I cover my pot, put in my oven overnight (oven is off).  10 hours later the curd has formed but the whey has a slimy quality to it.  I tried draining it anyway, needed to drain longer than usual.  The end result was cheese the consistency of silly putty, it was gross.  I've been trying to make cheese for the last 2 weeks and each failure is identical. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?  I made cheese with this method all last year.

[linuxboy]

Your milk is contaminated, or the tools or containers are. There's some type of environmental contamination. Sanitize everything, thoroughly, replace any worn or scratched contact surfaces, and try again. Could also try pasteurizing the milk.

[luvsgoats]

I agree, but also want to mention that if you are reculturing your culture the "phage" could be passed from batch to batch in your culture.

Direct Set culture and fresh at that, might help.  Weak culture can also give a rubbery, curdy result.  Try starting with new, fresh, strong culture.... after you've done everything Linux recommended.

[mainelycheese]

Also, what are you using for a culture?

The person who taught me to make chevre, used buttermilk... and this is exactly what I ended up with. Gross boogery whey and plasticy cheese.

I quit using buttermilk and have had no problems since.

[linuxboy]

phage might be an indirect problem, but not very likely. The way it might be a problem is if it kills the starter to allow adventitious organisms to take a hold and grow.

Most likely, the issue is as I said: contamination. That slimy texture is because some strain of bacteria have the functional property to form long stands or otherwise use these long protrusions on the outside of their cell walls composed of polysaccharides to give liquids different textures. Those strands/protrusions create body and textural changes in the milk. Typical attributes that may be present are ropyness, slimyness, higher viscosity, and so on.

The source of contamination may be the buttermilk itself. Mutations to lactic bacteria sometimes cause drastic functional changes.

I suggest if you're experiencing these problems to review your sanitary practices and try using known culture, like from DVI packets. It's most likely not phage. If it is, try rotating to a new culture.

luvsgoats, it's true, if the culture does not acidify enough before the rennet sets, or if there's too much rennet, then there's too much calcium retention. But it doesn't seem like this is the case here. This seems like classic contamination.