I made two batches of cheese this weekend. One was a Gouda and the other a Colby. When I made the Colby I noticed a few fat globs floating in the whey. I had not noticed this before and don't understand how it happened this time.
I use raw milk from Jersey cows. The attached image is not mine but the globs were just like that. They were 100% butter. Could it be that I am stirring to hard during warm up?
Thanks
Certain times of the year raw Jersey milk has even more fat then usual-----don't know how big your "globs" are or how many, but over stirring can certainly exacerbate the issue----if you ever made butter, you know it takes quite a bit of agitation though.
My raw Jersey makes often have fat showing and the cheeses all seem to come out great---but most of those are hard or semi hard Alpine style. I'm sure there are people who know more about this then me---if you can wake them up from the summer doldrums.
Qdog
I get these too, sometimes. Mostly in the winter months when the butterfat of my Nubian goats milk goes over 6%. Make sure you aren't raising the temperature too fast, or stirring too vigorously. It really is a very gentle stir, to keep things moving gently. When I start getting these, I know its time to start making Butter cheese and Cajeta.
I wish my fat shed the same way. Unfortunately for me Fat globs just land around my belly and rear end >:D
Quote from: IllinoisCheeseHead on June 03, 2015, 07:46:45 PM
I wish my fat shed the same way. Unfortunately for me Fat globs just land around my belly and rear end >:D
Kim Kardashian may pay you for some of that butterfat to (ahem) enhance her attributes? Sorry, thought I best not post this ;).
If you're buying the milk, it may be the dairy's fault (well, it's pretty unavoidable). When dealing with milk in bulk, it tends to be agitated just enough for bits of butterfat to come out, but it's really only obvious when you make the cheese and it floats on top of the whey.
Pumping the milk into the bulk tank, agitating the milk in the bulk tank, stirring while pasteurizing - all of these steps contribute to a small amount of butterfat leaving the milk. That's why homogenization became standard practice.
If it's from your own cow, sometimes even the force of hand milking (squirting milk into a bucket) will be enough to work butterfat out.
Blame it on the high bf% of Jerseys! (and the huge fat globules)