Chèvre gone wrong

[dgcheese]

Hello. New to cheese making.

Was able to source some local raw goat milk. I followed the 'traditional provencal chèvre' recipe from the book 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes. This recipe is based on temperatures and times, no pH.

I kept notes of what I did.

Basically, the milk is heated, liquid rennet was added, left over night, drained in cheesecloth, then scooped into molds. Flipped a couple of times, then salted and dried on a mat for 4 days, flipping daily.

I tasted it today and the texture was a tad spongy. It was still moist, but not creamy at all. Also, it tasted like feta more than anything else.

Any thoughts on the funny texture and taste?

Thank you in advance.

[tinysar]

Spongy texture might be caused by contamination. Was the curd spongy & full of large holes? I know it kinda defeats the purpose of using raw milk, but in the interest of science you could try pasteurising the next batch to check the theory.

If it tastes like feta you may have over-salted, chevre doesn't need a lot. Another reason for a "feta-like" taste might be the natural lipase in goat milk.

Also, 4 days seems like a long time to drain a chevre - the recipe I have calls for only 2 days, and I normally don't even leave it for that long.

[dgcheese]

Thank you for the input.

The curds didn't seem spongy or have holes. There are multiple tiny holes in the final cheese though.

Perhaps I over salted it.

To clarify, I drained it for a few hours, then flipped it in small molds for ~18 hours, then left them to dry on a bamboo mat for 4 days, flipping them each day.

They ended up as semi-firm spongy little rounds of cheese.

Guess I'll have to try again! Thanks,

[tinysar]

Guess I'll have to try again! Thanks,

Good luck!