Simple Farmers Goat Cheese

Our Simple Farmers Cheese, is SUPER easy and yummy cheese to make and is a great first cheese to play around with. The recipe below is a bit of a rough recipe compared to most you may find but it works well for us, it makes approximately 1kg of cheese.

I let our milk sit in the back of the fridge for about 3 days before making our farmers cheese, I have found it yields better curds for us personally but this may differ for other people.


Ingredients

  • 3 to 4 L. Goat's Milk

  • 1/4 cup. Double Strength White Vinegar (1/2 cup .White Vinegar or other acids work as well.)

  • Salt (for Taste)


Optional*

you can also add in other things such as herbs and spices, this is a great cheese to play around with and make your own flavours.


Curds and Whey shortly after adding in the vinegar.

Cheese curds draining whey in a fresh chux cloth.

Method

Heat milk in a pan ona medium to low temperature until it just before it begins to boil (It will go almost frothy on top and quite steamy.) Stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn.

Once it starts to boil, turn off heat and pour in your vinegar while stirring in an slow up down motion. Curds should form immediately, Leave set for 15 min or so for curds to settle out.

Line a colander with a fresh dish cloth (such as Chux.) or cheese cloth over another pan. Pour curds and whey into cheesecloth. Let set for a while - about 30 minutes.

Place curds into a bowl to add in your salt and any spices/extras. Adjust to your liking and get creative!

Using clean hands to mix spices through the curds by squishing it.

The next step is to press, there's many different ways you can do this, example: I get a round cheese mould and fill one with my cheese then place a lid from my milk jars (Which happen fit perfectly just inside.) on top and then add my weight to it for an hour or more. Refrigerate overnight and enjoy!


Additional

  1. Try to get as much whey out as you can. Your cheese will be much denser if you can get most of it out.

  2. Two plastic Chinese food containers with small holes drilled into the bottom can work well as replacement to my cheese mould and lid technique.

  3. For weight heavy books on a plate work well.

  4. Save the Whey! You can use it in almost any recipe that needs liquid. I love it for cooking mashed potatoes.