Early last November I went over to Ashfield to take this cheese making workshop, and it was pretty fun. I didn't have much money at the time, so after the class I didn't get any supplies, but recently I picked some up, and now I've made goat cheese twice.
The first batch was a chevre which was pretty simple - just cook the milk, add a packet of culture, let it sit overnight, then drain it for a few days - in fact, draining it was the hardest part because I needed to come up with a decent setup for that, eventually finding a way to hang the cheese over a container to capture the whey. Once it was done, a gallon of cheese had turned into a little pile of fairly tasty goat cheese, which we then brought to a potluck for all to enjoy.
My second batch, finished this weekend, was more of a traditional goat cheese - it was drained in molds to create little rounds of cheese. I had a little more trouble with this one. I think I may have overcooked the milk, and it also probably sat a little too long before I put it into the molds. After about two days, I took it out of the molds and stored it in plastic wrap in the fridge. When I took it out later that night, little puddles of a briny substance had accumulated in the wrap. That said, it was VERY tasty. I rolled two of them in some freshly ground pepper, and that was absolutely terrific.
Hopefully once things warm up a little bit and I can clean enough space in the garage to make a little workbench area, I'll be able to make a press for hard cheese, and have some fun with that.
