Safely using raw goats milk?

[freemotion]

The milk needs heating anyway to make the cheese, to kill off any potential bacteria that could alter the taste or ruin the cheese flavor. You want just the culture you're adding to be alive and active.

Not for mesophillic cheeses. The temps are usually 77F to the 90's F, too low to even impact the enzymes. Many cheeses were originally made while the milk was still warm from the cow or goat. I haven't made any cheeses since mozzarella that get hot enough to pasteurize the milk.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

The milk needs heating anyway to make the cheese, to kill off any potential bacteria that could alter the taste or ruin the cheese flavor. You want just the culture you're adding to be alive and active.

Not for mesophillic cheeses. The temps are usually 77F to the 90's F, too low to even impact the enzymes. Many cheeses were originally made while the milk was still warm from the cow or goat. I haven't made any cheeses since mozzarella that get hot enough to pasteurize the milk.

yep. most of mine are non-pasteurized (but i know my goat! ha!).

 

[Dace]

ooo, you bought raw goats milk in CA? Living on the wild side! I love the name Crazy Ellie!

Hehehee....yep, that's me. Wild wild wild.

OFG...50 gals a day? wow, what a shame!

Free & Neko....there is definitely a lot to learn here! I love it

I met a lady at the cheese store (Pamela the Cheese Lady) who made a pretty decent (at 3 weeks old) cheddar from store bought cows milk. She let me try it and I was surprised that it turned out so well from ordinary FDA approved milk

 

[freemotion]

Dace, the cheeses you are most familiar with are made with FDA approved over-pasteurized milk. I make lots of cheese but still buy cheap commercial cheddar and mozzarella....nothing melts like it! But now I know that it is NOT a nutrient-dense food....it is not quite a non-food like many processed foods today, at least it will have some cultures and some halfway good fat. Only halfway because the cows are confined.

If you can make SOME of your own dairy products from raw milk obtained from healthy, pastured animals, it goes a long way towards the health of your family. Remember the study done by Dr. Price with the school of underprivileged kids, giving them a simple but nutrient-dense lunch daily...then they went home to twinkies and white bread and margarine....but their grades, growth, and performance improved dramatically on one good meal a day, which included raw milk and butter from pastured cows.

So rejoice and enjoy any little bit you can do. As I've mentioned, last year I mixed a gallon of cow's milk (confined dairy, lightly pasteurized) to three of goat's milk and made a lovely cheddar with a much better texture than all goat's milk for the aged hard cheeses. Creamier, not chalky.

 

[Dace]

Thanks Free!

I do plan to keep working with good milk. I am hoping to find some good cows milk, but goat milk is so much easier to find!

I am glad to know that I can play around with cheap milk when making cheese though, I would rather throw away a crappy batch of $6 milk cheese than $12-$40 milk cheese. Raw cows milk from the health food store is almost $10 per quart!

Any who.....I am havng fun. I plan to look for a small wine frig on CL to use to age my (upcoming) cheddar.