Hey everyone. Brand new here and a beginning cheese maker in search of some advice. I tried finding this problem in the forums but didn't come across it. Anyway, I'm making chèvre/goat cheese and after letting it sit, the top layer of curd was a little brownish/yellowish/reddish. Attached is a picture of the curds draining in cheesecloth where you can see some splotches of color. So some questions: Is this a contamination? If so, is it it throw it out bad or is it salvageable? Any advice would be appreciated.
Here's a better pic as more of the whet has drained out.
How old are they ? If more than a week or 2 then it could be B linens which is perfectly safe to eat .
Just so you know dangerous molds generally do not grow on cheese , the molds that do grow how ever can have some effect on the flavor for good or bad .
Sounds like these are still just in the first day or two of the make? If so, a couple of possibilities that come to mind. One is, you might have a spot of higher fat content. My understanding is that goat's milk doesn't tend to separate the way cow's milk does, but if this were cow's milk, I'd think you had a bit of a blob of butter fat there.
The other possibility, depending on how it was made, is that you might have a patch that has dried differently than the rest around it. Not sure how convinced I would be of that explanation, but ...
In any case, I would say go forward, and then taste carefully. My guess is you will be fine.
Thanks for the replies. I'm using the recipe from the DIY book from American Test Kitchen fwiw. I let the whey separate from the curd for about 20 hours. The first pic is immediately after placing the curd in a cheesecloth-lined colander and the second is a few hours later. It tastes normal (which means delicious) so I think I'm ok and your replies put me at ease. This is my 4th or 5th time making it and I havn't seen anything like that before. We have a Christmas party tomorrow and I would hate to get anyone sick.
From pasteurized milk it seems highly unlikely that you grew something dangerous in such a short time. Almost everything good or bad takes a week or more.
I agree with awakephd It is something like fat or possibly you touched it with something that left some color.