Hi all, I've been making chevre since last fall and it has been wonderful. I've been making it raw and had no problems but this season with different goats and culture ordered from the same source (new batch) from cheeseandyogurtmaking.com after 3 batches I can't understand what is going wrong. I'm getting very dry cheese without lots of flavor. It's actually spongy or crumbly. I'm not doing anything different from last year so I'm confused as to why it's not coming out right. I've been putting the culture in at 73 degrees and adding one drop of rennet in a tablespoon of water. Anyone have any suggestions? Could it be the culture?
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Oh, yeah! You really need to pasteurize the milk and sterilize jars and so on to make a mother culture.
The best place for beginners to start is www.cheesemaking.com. They have cultures in single-use sizes, and they cater to beginners and home cheese makers.
Ohhhhhhhh! yes, I've been making a mother culture which for some reason worked great last year-- I must have gotten lucky. I have packets of culture that make a quart of mother culture --I add the culture following the directions on the packet except I didn't heat the milk and then cool it like it says to do (oops). Then I let it set for 24 hours at around 72-75 degrees (air conditioned house temp). Then I freeze most of it in ice cube trays and use the rest in a week or so. It sounds from what you're saying that my culture was contaminated I should throw it all out and get some freeze dried culture. Where do you get yours from?
You're "making" the culture? That might be the problem. I've been assuming that you are using a powdered culture for each batch. Start from the beginning and describe what you are doing. Now it sounds like you are making a mother culture and using that? If so, that is a big problem for small-scale home cheesemakers. Mother cultures don't live very long at all. They are really only for people who are making cheese and making new mother culture regularly. My husband originally was making and using a mother culture for cheddar, and after a few failed batches -- which included curds that bubbled up an almost caused our cheese press to explode -- I convinced him that the culture was dead. Now we use freeze-dried cultures exclusively.
Hmm really good points! When this first happened I threw out the culture that was in the freezer thinking it had gone bad (now I'm not so sure) and ordered new culture. I just made this new culture a week ago. The culture I get allows you to make a quart of culture (2 pints). I'm not sure how to tell if the culture came out right? Is there some way to tell for sure? I've looked at pics online and it looks like yogurt in the pics but mine does not-- it's more like milk (but smells kind of tart) and some of the fat coagulates a bit in it. Maybe I have not made the culture right?
A drop of rennet in a quart of milk is way too much for a chevre. I use a drop in a gallon of milk. If you are only using a quart, I'd suggest putting 4 ounces of water in a measuring cup and adding one drop of rennet, and then using only one ounce of the water. Also, check your rennet and make sure it is NOT triple strength.
The other problem with using such a small amount of milk, however, is that it is a challenge to get the culture correct. Cultures are made with the assumption that you will be using a larger amount of milk, and they usually contain multiple cultures, so if you start using really small amounts of culture, you may not be getting a very good distribution of the various culture types, which will mean that your results will vary from batch to batch. This is why some cultures will say to us 1/8 teaspoon for anything up to 2 gallons. If you are using a smaller amount of culture, that may be what happened to this last batch of cheese bubbling up. Something in the environment (such as a wild yeast or bacteria) may have taken over the milk because you didn't have enough active culture in there. And ... if this culture is too old, it won't work, which will give wild critters the ability to grow and multiply in your milk. Could your culture be expired? Have you been storing it in the freezer?
The first 3 batches I also made only one quart and used the same recipe as last milk season (with one drop rennet in one tblsp water). So I did try using a smaller amount of rennet since it is technically too much for one quart according to the directions (1/2 of the tblsp of water with one drop in it). Each time the same thing has happened -- rubbery cheese. I DID eat this batch and now that I think about it I had the bubbles in one of the other batches too. So frustrating. I guess I'll try pasteurizing the milk for the next batch. Btw, no sickness from the cheese (whew!).
Bubbles mean there was some type of contamination. This is raw milk, right? I hope you didn't eat it. I've only had that happen a couple of times, and I threw it away. You have no idea what the contamination was and whether or not it is harmful, so it is best to just throw it away.
Just to verify ... you put a drop of rennet in a tablespoon of water and then used only 1/2 of the diluted rennet (1/2 tablespoon). When you say this was a small batch, I hope you don't mean that you only used half as much milk as before, because if so, then you really did not reduce the amount of rennet used. Remember, never change more than one thing at a time. If you change more than one thing, then you will have no idea what caused the result.
The thing I don't like about using raw milk for fresh cheeses and yogurt is that results will vary from farm to farm, so it is harder for someone else to offer suggestions. I've heard people say everything from "it's impossible to make yogurt with raw milk" to "raw milk makes the thickest creamiest yogurt."
My cheese did not come out right again with bringing the milk up to 86 degrees. I also reduced the rennet since I was making a small batch and the one drop is too much for that. I put the one drop in a tbsp and then divided it. I don't have tons of milk right now and I really don't want to waste a 1/2 gallon and definitely not a gallon on cheese that isn't good! Here are some pics of this last batch-- this one did some really weird stuff: it had large bubbles on the top. Huh?
It came out dry and rubbery again :(
Okay! I'll do that ;)
You should only change one thing at a time to see what works. First, try increasing the temp to 86 degrees and see what happens.
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