• Welcome to CheeseForum.org » Forum.

I had a dream...

Started by Boot, April 26, 2020, 07:14:18 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Boot

Hi, I'm Mel. I live in Staffordshire, UK. Lover of cheese, will soon be having a go at making it.

I had a dream last night that I was making cheese and it was one of those moments of revelation. Why not! People do it all the time so why shouldn't I?
I specifically want to make goats cheese, cabecou if I can pull it off.
My difficulty,I've discovered after a day of googling, is sourcing fresh goats milk where I live! I've googled, I've facebooked, I've messaged dairies and farm shops and have so far drawn a blank. I can get a litre carton from Tesco for £1.80ish....not ideal? I'm happy to travel into Derbyshire, Shropshire or Cheshire (after lockdown ends)
Can anyone point me in a direction of maybe a dairy farm union or something or somewhere that might aid my search please?

mikekchar

I'd kill for £1.80 per liter goat's milk.  For me it costs 1000円 (£7.52 at today's exchange rate) for a liter of goat's milk *and* I have to pay for shipping!  In fact, I pay more than £1.80 for *cow's* milk :-)  Japan: land where 2/3 of the population is lactose intolerant...  Anyway, as long as its not UHT, I would totally go for the Tesco's milk while you are searching.  I suspect you won't be able to get it any cheaper than that anyway (especially if you factor in petrol for driving around to get it).  Especially for soft cheeses like cabecou, you're going to get a yield of around %18 so it's only  £1 per 100g of cheese (plus a tiny amount in rennet and cultures), which I think is really quite reasonable.  Possibly after Brexit goes through and access to cheap European cheese goes out the window it will look even more attractive.

But welcome to the forum.  I look forward to hearing about the cheeses you make!

pickles

I would tend to agree with mike. For a start I'd use easily obtainable supermarket pasteurised whole cows milk around £1.50 for 6 pints - just over 3L.
This quantity and type of milk will produce a workable sized cheese for starters. You could produce good cheese with it at a good price.
There is a definite learning curve to cheese making and in my experience the more time you can give to it and the more frequently you do it the better the results.
Begin to specialise with methods and ingredients after you have some experience under your belt. This means quite a few months maybe a year from the first make to the tasting of the product. It is definitely a waiting game.
I am only just starting out and have found that there is much to learn. The results make it worthwhile when you get it right.

Check this out for raw cows milk, I use locally produced at a cost of £1 a litre.
This is not by any means a vital ingredient and is far more expensive than pasteurised.
https://www.rawmilk.org.uk/

The virus is causing havoc but a 6 pint pack of whole pasteurized milk would get you off to a start.

You might also try getting in touch with Goat Nutrition, I believe they are a very helpful company and might be able to point you towards a goats' milk producer. You can also buy cheese making stuff at their website btw.
https://gnltd.co.uk/

Boot

Thank you both! Great advice, I'll add it to my Tesco order this week.

I ordered a starter kit from the GN site yesterday to get me going, I hope it gives me the opportunity to understand the ingredients and get a feel for what I'm about to do. I can't wait to get into it, from what I read online, I should be able to taste my cabecou after a week.
The reason for my choice - we spend a lot of time in SW France and our local markets have a great cabecou stall. The lockdown has me missing my holiday indulgence.

pickles

Happy cheese making and Bon Appetit!!