I would like a chevre recipe to adapt to cows milk. My neighbor makes a fortune on bovre' his own recipe , which he has adapted from goats milk to cows, except he is reluctant to give me the recipe. I just want something with the right texture (i can flavor it myself). I just started milking my first family cow and have LOTS of milk to experiment with. I would like to duplicate this recipe if possible because my four year old daughter says that my cheese is not as good(as my neighbors). Any help would be much appreciated!!! Thanks in advance Cara Lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), September 28, 2000

Answers

As far as I know, chevre is just a soft cheese made from goat milk. Here's how I make mine. I'm not a pro, but this is the one cheese that I CAN do pretty well. Here's how I do it.

Sterilize your pot by boiling water in it for a few minutes. Boil your cheesecloth and whatever string you're going to hang it up with at the same time. If you use bleach, the residue can kill your culture on the outside of the cheese, and your cheese can mold quickly. (The voice of experience.)

I use buttermilk as a starter (had a problem with one brand and don't use that one anymore). In the sterile pot, bring 1 gallon of fresh milk with about 1/4 cup of fresh cultured buttermilk mixed in to room temperature (72 degrees). You may want to heat the milk by putting the pot into a sink full of hot water as a double boiler so it doesn't take too long. You don't want milk sitting around above 40 degrees unless it is growing a culture.

Once it is up to temperature, completely dissolve 1/4 Junket rennet tablet in about 2 tablespoons of cool water. Stir into milk thoroughly. Cover pot and let it sit until a curd has formed. DO NOT move the milk around during this stage. I let mine sit overnight.

Once the curd has formed, line a large, VERY clean or sterile colander with sterile cheesecloth. Real cheesecloth looks kind of like voile or thin muslin, NOT gauze. You can just barely see through it. Some folks use old sheets. Take your biggest (sterile) spoon, preferably with holes or slots (an old cream skimmer works well), and spoon the curd into the colander. Do this by making shallow slices, about 1/2 inch thick, with the spoon and then gently laying each slice into the colander. You don't want to shatter the curd.

When all the curd is in the colander, bring the four corners of the cloth together and tie them into a knot. I loop a string around the knot to hang the bag. Hang it over a fairly large container, since it will expel quite a lot of whey. Leave it to hang at room temperature for several hours. (This is why cleanliness is so important.) You can roll the curd around in the bag occasionally by picking up one corner of the bag, letting it back down, picking up a different corner, etc. This keeps the curd from drying onto the side of the bag as the level goes down. It also helps to release the whey. Speaking of whey, you can use it to make Ricotta cheese (Yum!). It's very easy. Anyway, once the cheese has hung long enough to reach the right texture, take it down and mix in your salt and herbs to taste.

Feel free to email me with any questions.

Good luck!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), September 29, 2000.

I forgot to mention that three whole Junket rennet tablets are apparently equal to 1/4 Hansen's rennet tablet, so the two cannot be used interchangeably. The thing that creates the creamy texture of this cheese seems to be the very small amount of rennet used.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), September 29, 2000.