Chevre - soft goat cheese recipe

Chevre / Fromage Blanc is an ideal beginner recipe that uses starter bacteria instead of vinegar to seperate the curds. You can buy mesophilic culture and liquid rennet at the Dairy Connection

Ingredients:
• 1/2 gallon of fresh (raw, unpasteurized if available) goat milk
• 1/8 tsp. mesophilic DVI Culture "MM"* or 1 oz. mesophilic culture
• 1/5 of a drop of liquid rennet

In a stainless steel pot, warm the milk to 72°.
Add the culture and stir well. Now you need to add 1/5 of a drop of rennet. Measure out 5 tablespoons of water into a small cup. Add to the water 1 drop of liquid rennet and stir well. Now measure out 1 tablespoon of the rennet dilution (this one Tablespoon contains 1/5 of a drop of rennet) and add it to the milk. Stir well.

Cover the milk and place the pot somewhere that it can sit undisturbed and will stay about 72° for about 18 hours (sometimes I let it go 24 hours). What I do is place the pot in the cold oven until the next day. Try to remember that the milk is in the oven and don't plan on doing any baking that day.

When the milk has coagulated (it will look like thick yogurt, or a floating thick pancake) you are ready to drain the curds. Pour the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander. Tie up the ends and hang the bag and let drain 6-8 hours or longer, depending on how dry you'd like the cheese to be. It is amazing how much chevre you'll get from one $6 gallon of goat milk, compared to the tiny, expensive logs for sale at your local cheese department. Salt to taste and enjoy!

Excerpt from the Fias Co Farm website