Homemade Goat Cheese

At Pebble Soup HQ, we started to make our own goat cheese. It's not complicated, I would go as far as saying that with a good goat's milk, and a few tips, this disappearing ancient craft, could be easily revived, in your own kitchen.

At first, it was trial and error but a visit to a goat-farm put me right. There I learnt that the key is the goat's milk. Unpasteurised is best unless your immune system is deficient or you are pregnant. However raw milk is not easy to source, and for this reason, pasteurised full-fat goat milk will do. The keyword is full fat, anything but whole milk won't do.

My next point is almost as important as the first. Hygiene: everything, including your hands, has to be squeaky clean, soaked in boiling water, obviously not your mitts.

Things you'll need which you might not already have:

a jam/dairy thermometer, one which clips by the side of the pan, at least know how to recognise when the turning off the heat point is, a cheesecloth or muslin (I get mine from the chemist) and last but not least citric acid.

Firm and Crumbly Goat's cheese

Ingredients:

4 pints whole goat's milk

1tsp citric acid

1 to 2 tsp salt

optional herbs or flavouring

Method:

Dissolve 1tsp of citric acid in 50 ml of water and leave this to cool to room temperature.

Pour the milk into a large pan, clip the thermometer to the pan and heat slowly to 190F/88C. Stir frequently. Turn the heat to low but don't remove the pan from the heat source. Before the foam subsides drizzle in the citric acid solution. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.

Now remove from the heat and continue to stir until you can see the curds.

Line a colander with the cheesecloth. Slowly pour in the curds and drain for 10 minutes. At this stage mix in the salt and any herbs or flavourings if desired.

Gather the cheese into a mound. Fold the cheesecloth corners and press very very very gently. Add a heavyweight or a pan full of water over the cloth and let it drain for at least an hour.

Mould your cheese into any shape you fancy and use immediately or leave it to chill in the fridge in a clean airtight container for up to a week.

Here is a recipe I made using the homemade goat cheese: Borek