A Heavenly Treat....Homemade Apple & Cinnamon Goats Yogurt

I tried my hand at making my own yogurt this past week and it turned out fairly well….of course it’s goats yogurt, which I think is superior in both taste and nutrition – and it’s so easy to work with.

To be honest with you, we spent so many years as vegans and vegetarians, that even now with our own goats I often forget about milk and we almost never eat yogurt…

I make a little cheese each week with our milk and the rest is used for dandelion coffee at the weekends. That’s about it for the milk – of course the children have about a tablespoon in their porridge in the morning.

However, whenever I read up on the fine art of cheese making I always came across advice and recipes for yogurt….

So, I thought I might as well learn how to do this as well! What I did though to make the first batch easier and to try to learn how our milk would respond to a yogurt culture – is buy a goats yogurt and use this to ‘seed’ another batch using our own milk.

First of all, I am using raw milk which has it’s own bacteria and life process taking place. I have found I am learning more about how our milk responds to being processed into cheese every time I make it….(the cultures and rennet).

And I only have small amounts of milk to play with each day, so I have to pay careful attention to what I am doing if I want to learn anything here. LOL

I used about a litre of milk, which I warmed to room temperature. Then taking 1 generous tablespoon of the purchased yogurt, I stirred a little into some of my milk. This was then poured into entire jar and shaken very well.

I didn’t want to sit around and stir, heat or otherwise stand over a pot ‘cooking’ something that, to me, should be a natural process. Yet, I knew the milk now needed heat in order to curdle into yogurt (grow the mesophilic bacteria).

So, to provide a relatively steady supply of gentle heat, I placed the jar into a small bowl and filled the bowl with hot water. This was replaced every few hours and the jar contents were swirled around or gently agitated.

It was starting to thicken after a few hours…then it was left overnight (in the oven to act as an insulator) while the next morning another bowl of hot water was filled.

Pretty soon I had yogurt. No real fuss. Nothing fancy and virtually no equipment was needed. When I think about it….this is gentle food at it’s finest. Homemade yogurt is a little thinner then the shop bought stuff….but the taste is very nice!

For our yogurt treat, I stewed apples and cinnamon and mixed this into the yogurt….heavenly!

April

Apple & Cinnamon Goats Yogurt

Happy Bacteria Cultures - Home Grown Mesophilic Bacteria

Yesterday I was busy finishing up my feta cheese making – it was a great experiment all round and fun too. It is a marvel to watch the milk curdle and then clump into solids and liquids as it separates during the ripening phase.

With my microbiology background (yes, that too) I am always curious about the bacteria normally present in raw milk and of course, then my mind goes into thinking….can I get them to grow at home?

Of course the answer for the most part is, yes. It is actually quite easy – and because I have wonderful raw milk from my own goats – the way to go about producing my own mesophilic (bacteria that grow in moderate temperatures such as 20 to 30 degrees) is relatively simple.

During the past couple of days I took a clean empty glass jar and filled it with milk right from the goats. Then I set it out on the kitchen counter (with the lid loosely on) and watched it. It feels as if I have done a lot of watching and waiting this week….

However, after a few hours, you kind of ignore it – because this process takes about 30 to 36 hours (in my case) for the milk to curdle. After 24 hours nothing was happening so I moved the jar to a slightly warmer place until I went to bed.

Just before I turned in for the night, I moved the jar back to it’s cooler location and left it there. This morning – I had soured, thick, clumpy milk – it was wonderful to see! I gave it a couple of little shakes to evenly distribute the curds and then poured it into small trays to freeze.

This was evidence that bacteria had grown and was now ready to use in some way...

If all goes well – I should be able to take one frozen cube out of the freezer and use it to inoculate my yogurt, buttermilk or cheese making adventures for at least some of the types I hope to make.

At the very least – it was nice to how more of this cheese making process can be done at home. I have an issue with mass produced, factory grown bacteria….I think they aren’t as happy as the ones grown in my kitchen.

April

Mesophilic bacteria starter in trays 

Homemade Feta Cheese - made with Goats Milk

Today I am making feta cheese with my goat’s milk – this is an easy cheese to make but can also be kept for awhile once it’s ready. Because I am still fasting, I thought this one would be the best to make right now.

To make feta cheese I started with 2 liters of fresh goats milk from our goats and rummaged around the kitchen until I found 2 pots that would work well as a double boiler. It is important to heat the milk but I didn’t want to heat it directly over a burner.

Instead, I heated water to boiling in the kettle, while the milk was brought up to room temperature. Next I set up my double boiler – placing something (a pot lid) on the bottom to steady the smaller pan holding the milk.

Then after pouring hot water into the bigger pot, I set the smaller pot (with the milk in it) onto the pot lid so it could rest in the hot water and begin to heat up. It doesn’t take long and I had to watch it carefully to make sure it would not overheat.

The temperature you are aiming for is about 30C – but this needs to be maintained for about an hour or so. Once I was at or near that temperature I added in some of my homemade vegetarian rennet (made from nettles) and I guessed at how much starter culture to add (I have a packet that says add to 150L!).

Then I stirred (very gently) while holding the candy thermometer to the one side (I do need a more accurate one for cheese making) and checking the temperature making sure I was keeping it in the right range.

After 20 minutes or so, I removed the smaller pan and replaced some hot water to keep the temperature up. Then I stopped stirring and let it all settle for about another hour or so.

I had to stop watching it (LOL) so I went to do something else – then when I came back it had started to turn into the familiar curds and whey. But was not quite ready yet because it was not giving a clean break.

What I was looking for was for the curd to become a little solid and break apart when gently cut with a knife. Or even to not stick to my finger when gently pushed down.

Within another 15 minutes this clean break started to happened and I was able to cut the curds with my knife in a crisscross pattern and then at a 45 degree angle to break up the curds underneath. Once I had done this I just let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes at a time between gentle stirs of the curd to encourage the whey to separate.

Once I was satisfied it was ready, I placed the curds and whey into a strainer covered in 5 layers of muslin cloth and allowed it to drain out into a pan for an hour or so. Then I tied up the cloth ends and the cheese is now draining/dripping into the pan while hanging from a hook.

I plan to brine this cheese – for a day or two and then to let it sit until I am finished this fast. Then I want to marinate it in olive oil and oregano and have a taste testing – can’t wait for that.

April

Feta Cheese in process...curds and whey 

Homemade Goat's Cheese - Vegetarian Rennet and Lemon Juice

On to a new chapter in living foods (and increasing healthy gut bacteria) here with some exploration in cheese making, vegetarian rennet and all things to do with working my tiny bit of goat’s milk that I am getting each day.

Right now we have one goat that is milking – she has 3 kids on her, so we don’t take (or get) very much. And another goat who is a maiden milker but is due to have her kids at the beginning of May or so.

Not much milk at the moment – but hopefully more to come soon enough. The bit I do get goes mostly to my children, however I have been saving some over the past few days to try my hand at a little farmhouse cheese.

I have gone to a couple cheese making classes and read/studied lots about this wonderful art – so this week I decided to give it a try with my precious goat’s milk. However, my plan was to started out easy and simple either way.

To begin with I decided to make my own rennet – I don’t like the thought of using rennet from another species (animal rennet usually comes from calf stomach) and goat’s are vegetarians, so I thought – make some vegetarian rennet.

There are several plants apparently that are able to provide the necessary enzymes to get cheese making off to a good start. One of them is nettle – today I boiled some nettle (it was dried from last year) for 30 minutes and allowed it to steep, then added a little salt.

I then took 1 liter of raw goat’s milk and warmed it to about 25C, added a tablespoon or so of the nettle rennet and about 3 tablespoons lemon juice and stirred for a few minutes. Then I let it sit in the stainless steel pot for about an hour or so to see what might happen.

When I checked it – I could see the separation of curds and whey – so I poured it out into a strainer covered with layers of muslin cloth and placed the strainer over a large pot to catch the dripping whey.

This sat and drained down for another hour or so – and then I scooped the solid cheese out of the cloth and placed it into a bowl. This was salted with sea salt, sprinkled with homegrown garlic chives and promptly eaten!

Yum! And it was that easy….Now onwards and upwards!

April

Homemade goat's cheese - with sea salt and garlic chives