Question about chevre

[bernardsmith]

Had a weird experience the other day. A friend gave me a gallon of milk from her goats and I used it to make a batch of chevre. The problem was that when it came to shaping the cheese (24 hours after adding rennet and another 6-10 hours draining), the cheese was very crumbly. Moreover, the whey was not as clear as I would have expected if this was from cow's milk but when I tried to make some ricotta from that whey (heating the whey to about 190 F then adding vinegar) I got nothing. What, if anything does this indicate?

 

[Yooper]

Had a weird experience the other day. A friend gave me a gallon of milk from her goats and I used it to make a batch of chevre. The problem was that when it came to shaping the cheese (24 hours after adding rennet and another 6-10 hours draining), the cheese was very crumbly. Moreover, the whey was not as clear as I would have expected if this was from cow's milk but when I tried to make some ricotta from that whey (heating the whey to about 190 F then adding vinegar) I got nothing. What, if anything does this indicate?

Did you have a good clean break, and drain well?

 

[bernardsmith]

Yes, and yes.. Except that the recipe I used for Chevre did not ask that I cut the curds into cubes but allow the renneted curd to sit for 24 hours and then transfer the curds to a cloth to drain for at least 6 hours.

 

[passedpawn]

Crumbly cheese is often a sign of too much acidity. Acidity comes from the culture, so maybe too much culture, or leaving it too long before adding the rennet. I've made lots of crumbly cheese

I attempted to make ricotta last night myself (after making a cheddar), and got very little from it. I use citric acid to acidify after heating. No idea what happened there. It's my first try at it. Cheesemaking can be frustrating.

 

[bernardsmith]

Crumbly cheese is often a sign of too much acidity. Acidity comes from the culture, so maybe too much culture, or leaving it too long before adding the rennet. I've made lots of crumbly cheese

Possible... but unlikely- I added about 1/4 cup of whey from some kefir I had made that day and added the rennet about 5 minutes after adding the culture - although as I say, I did allow the renneted curds to sit for 24 hours before I started draining the curds.
I will try this "recipe" again, only this time I will use cows' milk and will see what happens if I simply allow the curds to stand for 12 hours...

 

[passedpawn]

Possible... but unlikely- I added about 1/4 cup of whey from some kefir I had made that day and added the rennet about 5 minutes after adding the culture - although as I say, I did allow the renneted curds to sit for 24 hours before I started draining the curds.
I will try this "recipe" again, only this time I will use cows' milk and will see what happens if I simply allow the curds to stand for 12 hours...

If you look into troubleshooting issues with cheese, it turns out that everything can cause everything Unlike beer, pretty much everything has to be JUST RIGHT for the cheese to turn out. I'm now using a pH meter and immersion circulator/heater to really dial in my process.

 

[bleme]

Unlike beer, pretty much everything has to be JUST RIGHT for the cheese to turn out.

Well, this depends on how you look at it. In the end, he still ended up with some tasty cheese. It just wasn't the texture he was shooting for. That's pretty much how our 'failures' in beer work too!

 

[passedpawn]

Well, this depends on how you look at it. In the end, he still ended up with some tasty cheese. It just wasn't the texture he was shooting for. That's pretty much how our 'failures' in beer work too!

Yea I guess that's true.

 

[bernardsmith]

I think I found the problem. Kefir cultures are pretty virile and the recipe I used called for allowing the rennetted and cultured milk to stand for 24 hours. This allowed the milk to become very acidified. I think that next time I try this I will let the renneted milk stand only about 4- 6 hours. Does anyone know why the ripening time in most recipes for chevre is 24 hours and why the curds are not cut