Milk to Use in Cheese
You will need milk for all cheese making endeavors. The milk you choose can be homegrown or store-bought, pasteurized and homogenized, or not, whole or skimmed, and the product of cows, goats or sheep.
Cow Milk
Most cheesemaking recipes assume you’ll use cow milk, but with minor modifications, you can usually substitute goat or sheep milk. Cow milk produces a firm, easy-to-work-with curd. One gallon of cow milk yields roughly two pounds of soft cheese or one pound of hard. And best, it’s readily available.
Goat Milk
Because goat milk is naturally homogenized, goat cheeses are easy to digest. Their tart, tangy flavor is appealing and unique. Goat milk lacks carotene, the substance that gives cow milk its yellow hue, so unless you add coloring, goat cheeses are invariably white. Goat milk curds are delicate, so lower the heat five degrees when using recipes tailored for cow milk. And process goat curds with a gentle hand.
Sheep Milk
Although dairy sheep are scarce in North America, globally that’s not the case. About 100 million sheep (one-tenth of the world’s population) are milked, and much of that milk goes into cheese. The distinctive flavor, texture and aroma of sheep cheese tickles many palates and lactose intolerant cheese aficionados can usually digest sheep-milk cheeses. Because it contains 10 percent less water than goat or cow milk and more than twice the solids, sheep milk yields up to two and one-half times more cheese than its competitors. If you’re lucky enough to have sheep milk to use in cow-milk recipes, add three to five times less rennet and only half the recommended salt.
Raw Milk
Raw milk purchased at natural food stores has been filtered and cooled, but not pasteurized. It is higher in vitamin content and considerably more flavorful than processed milk. The bad news: raw milk can harbor tuberculosis, brucellosis and salmonella bacteria. Only raw milk from tested animals should be used in cheese making.
Pasteurized Milk
Pasteurized milk is heat-treated to zap those nasty bacteria. The process robs milk of flavor and makes its vitamins, milk sugars and proteins harder to digest. Still, pasteurized milk is undoubtedly a safer product. Supermarket milk is pasteurized and homogenized. It’s heat-treated and pressurized to thwart cream separation. Store-bought milk yields a smoother, looser curd than home-produced milks, but adding calcium chloride makes it handle more like unpasteurized milk. Worth noting: it takes up to twice as much rennet to curdle homogenized cow milk, so start with the recommended amount and gradually add more solution until those reluctant curds appear.
Whole Milk
Whole milk boasts three and a half to four percent butterfat; its cream content is intact. Hard cheeses made from high-fat milk are generally softer than skim milk varieties but their “mouth feel” is superbly rich and silky.
Skim Milk
Skimmed milk contains zero to two percent butterfat. It’s fine for making reduced-fat and soft cheeses. Hard grating cheeses like parmesan and romano are always fashioned from partially skimmed milk. You can enrich seven pints of homogenized fresh or reconstituted skim milk with a pint of heavy cream to recreate raw milk’s great taste and its easier cheese making properties.Regardless of the type of milk you choose, make certain it’s fresh. Don’t crack the container until you’re ready to begin. Rancid or “barn-yardy” milks never make tasty cheese.
