How to Make Chèvre Cheese

How to Make Chèvre Cheese

If you have never made cheese, then beginning with quick and easy cheeses that need minimal equipment and ingredients and are ready to eat fairly quickly is the best way to get started. And this chèvre cheese recipe is perfect for it.

Chévre Cheese Recipe: Soft Fresh Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

Equipment

  • Stainless steel pot large enough to hold one gallon
  • Ladle
  • Cheese cloth (butter muslin)

How to make chèvre cheese

  • Heat 1 gallon of goat milk in large stainless steel pot to 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Sprinkle 1/8 tsp mesophilic culture* on the milk. Let sit for a minute or two to hydrate then stir in. Let it sit at room temperature to “ripen” for two hours.
  • Dilute 2 drops of rennet in ¼ cup non-chlorinated water and stir gently into ripened milk.
  • Cover the pot and let sit at room temp for 12 to 20 hours.
  • Gently ladle the curds into fine cheese cloth (butter muslin). Tie up the cloth and hang it over a sink or tie on the handle of a large pot and let the whey drain for about 12 hours.
chèvre-cheese

Your cheese is done! You can add approximately ¼ tsp kosher or other non-iodized sea salt, or add herbs or other flavors.

Eat within two weeks or freeze for several months!

* You can substitute 1 to 2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk or homemade sour cream for the mesophilic culture, if desired.


Goat Journal contributor Kate Johnson raises Nubian dairy goats in Longmont, Colorado, at briargatefarm.com. She is an active leader in the local 4-H Goat Program and a superintendent for her county’s fair. She’s the founder and lead instructor at The Art of Cheese – an artisan home-cheesemaking school located in Longmont, Colorado.

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