I'd been milking the goat for nearly a week, and had 3/4 gallon saved up for cheese. Purchased the Chevre packet from my local place that has cheese making supplies (they didn't have MM 100 or 101). It basically was MM, but also includes dialactysis (or something like that) and a touch of vegetable rennet. You can find it on the new england cheesemaking site. They had it for the same price where I purchased it, 5 packets (each packet does a gallon) for $5.95 (US). I removed 1/4 of it, as I only had 3/4 gallon.
Anyway, followed their instructions - heat to 86 degrees F, sprinkle culture and let rehydrate for 1-3 minutes, the stir in and let sit for 12 hours.
I needed to go away for a few hours, so put it in the oven with the light on, to keep it warmer. Came back after it had been sitting for 6 hours...... my ovens light is quite warm, evidently. ::) It had pulled away from the sides and had about an inch or more of whey over the top. The curd was pretty firm. i wasn't able to pull it out by hand, but i was able to pull it out of the pan in 3 pieces with a spatchula. (about 10" diameter)
i let it drain for a bit to get the gross amount of moisture out of it, then added in my french herbs (not herbs de provence - this had a couple HDP didn't, and didn't have the lavender buds and something else; not a fan of lavender). put it back in the cheese cloth and let it drain overnight. tasted pretty good the next morning, but i did need to salt it. i turned out really nice in flavor, but it was a bit dry. kind of expected it, as i'm assuming it cooked the moisture out of the curds. it still has some moisture, but is more crumbly than i wanted.
live and learn :)
Congrats!
Your packet should have provided a mainly lactic acid coagulation (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-cheese-milk-coagulation/) as small amount of rennet) and with your curd pulled well away from sides and 1" of whey on top you had a lot of syneresis (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/glossary/#Syneresis) - whey expulsion, and probably very high pH drop.
You didn't state temperature while in oven but I suspect your high temp did not "cook" moisture out but more resulted in the high syneresis and pH drop which resulted in high whey expulsion and your dry, low moisture content cheese.
(Pictures are always nice :)).
aaahhh, I see. that makes sense :) so, by keeping temp cooler, the acidification process doesn't happen as quickly/vigorously, thus giving the curds time to culture/prolonging the whey expulsion. I'm assuming this, and that by prolonging this time, the cheese will be better. it is a bit tangy, but it is very tasty (just a bit dry and unspreadable)
she was getting difficult to milk, and i believe she was trying to wean me. the last day i milked her, she was trying to lift her foot over my arm to push me out of the way, jump up and over the barrier in front of her, and kept trying to lay down. She was reaching the end of her 7th month of being milked, and we were planning on putting her with the buck in a month or so, anyway.
One of our other dwarf nigerians is probably going to kid tonight or tomorrow night, so in another couple weeks i'll have more fresh milk to make cheese. ;D I need to get a stanchion built!