| French Goat Cheese An uncooked goat cheese made in little cakes. You'll need plastic cheese molds. You can make your own from 16 oz. plastic tumblers. Perforate each tumbler by running a hot 10 penny nail through the bottom and sides in a random pattern. The more small holes the better the whey drains. Rinse out cups before you use them, to wash away any plastic residue. To 1 1/2 gallons of whole goat milk, add 1 cup buttermilk. Let this stand at room temperature (70 degrees) for 2 hours to ripen. Heat milk slowly to 86 degrees (lukewarm to touch). Dissolve one-half rennet tablet in 1/2 c. lukewarm water. Gently stir into milk and let rest until curd is formed and begins to separate from whey (liquid). Using a slotted spoon, scoop large curds into molds, filling the molds to the top. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt (preferably sea salt or kosher without iodine) over each and set to drain on rack. The next day the cheese will have shrunk to half the size of the mold. If it's firm and holds its shape it's ready to remove from the mold. Gently slide knife blade around edge of mold to remove cheese. Set each cake on a rack to drain further. After a bit of a rind has formed (several hours), powder some salt in a blender and rub on outside of cheese. After it has aged to desired flavor (two to five days in a cool place), cover and place in refrigerator. It will keep for about a week. Serving ideas: Crumble and mix with some garlic salt, minced onions or fresh chives, and serve on crackers or crusty French bread. I also like it in salads or as a topping for baked potatoes. (Copied from the June/July 2002 issue of Mother Earth News.) Basic Farm Cheese 1. Put 8 quarts of cow or goat's milk in an enamel or stainless steel pot (not aluminum). 2. Warm it to 86 degrees. Use a dairy thermometer. 3. Add 1/4 rennet tablet (or a whole junket tablet), crushed, with 1 t. of water. (I used 1/2 tsp. of liquid animal rennet.) Stir it in. (Your drugstore can order rennet for you.) 4. Let set quietly until it curds. (20-45 minutes) 5. Cut into approx. 1/2 inch cubes by cutting one way, then the other, then at an angle. 6. Bathe the curds for 2 minutes with your hands. That means to move the curds around in the whey gently and slowly. 7. Set your enamel/stainless pot in a dishpan of water back on the stove. Keep it covered so nothing contaminates the contents. 8. Slowly warm to 102 degrees, stirring occasionally to keep ingredients at an even temperature. 9. Take it off the stove and let it set an hour, stirring occasionally very gently. 10.Put cheesecloth over a colander. Pour the cheese in. l l. Add 1 T. salt and mix with hands. Add another 1 T. salt and mix again. 12. Tie ends of cheesecloth together to make a bag. Hang it up where you can let it drip for the rest of the day. 13. At the end of the day place the bag of cheese in a cheese press or make one by placing the bag of cheese in a sturdy colander, place the colander in a cake pan to catch any leftover whey and place a weight on top of the cheese. (I use a 10 lb. weight from my sons' weightlifting equipment. I wrap it in plastic wrap first, to keep things clean!) The press can be placed in the fridge or left out overnight. 14. After pressing all night, remove the cheesecloth and let the cheese dry in an airy, cool place, turning it every few days until it forms a hard rind. If it molds, cut the mold away. 15. Paraffin it. To do that you heat a block of store paraffin in a pan (double boiler type) almost to boiling (210 degrees), then brush the hot wax over your cheese or dip parts of the cheese in until you have it all covered. Attach a string in it and you can hang it in a cool place to age. At first your cheese will be tasteless and have the consistency of a rubber eraser. The flavor comes with aging. Give it 2 months at least. Be careful you have it thoroughly waxed, or it may get wormy. (This is paraphrased from Carla Emery's "Encyclopedia of Country Living") To learn more about cheesemaking go to the Fiasco Farm website!
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