Greetings from Lynden, Washington. My name is Jenn, I have made basic cheeses for a couple years now and am attempting my first cheddar today. Our three goats freshened and I finally have enough milk! My hubby built me a cheesepress, I bought my cultures and what not....now I have a questions, which is why I joined this group.
I have seven sweet children whom we homeschool and hobby farm with. We raise chickens for meat and eggs, goat's for milking, garden and whatever else we can find to do on 2 small acres.
The reason I joined is....I inoculated a qrt of goats milk last night at 10pm with a packet of mesophilic starter. All seems to be going well at the 16hr mark, but the starter isn't as thick as my Cheesemaking book states. It is as thick as yogurt, but far from solid with *shiny sides*. I know with yogurts my goat's milk never makes a thick consistancy...is this the same with the mesophilic starter? Do you think it is ready to freeze in ice cube trays and start a batch cheddar?
if it coagulated, it's done. Go ahead and freeze. The information about "solid with *shiny sides*" is arbitrary and anecdotal guidance. It's ready as soon as it coagulates (for meso). Past that, past a pH of 4.8 or so, there's no gain in culturing longer.
Also, welcome. I love Lynden and try to go up to pick berries every year :)
Ah yes, the blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. I can't wait. ;) Thank you very much for your vote of confidence, I reeeally want to start, but I also like to go *by the book*.
I know Ricki's book is assuming you are using cow milk and it acts differently.
Nice to *meet* you.
Welcome Jenn, years ago went shopping lots in Lynden when grew up in Vancouver, now live in Houston but with CDN so high expect lots of border shoppers again.
There's a couple pictures of lactic acid coagulated cow's milk in our Wiki: Coagulation (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki/) article.