[Cheese] Raw Cheese

[Jack Schmidling]

Elizabeth Cameron wrote:
> Hi, I am new to the conversation, and have a question.  Does anybody
> make cheese from raw fresh milk?  I have dairy goats and would prefer
> to keep the enzymes alive in making cheese. I use the milk raw for
> chevre, which works great, but don't know about doing this for hard
> cheeses.

Fresh milk has the potential to produce better cheese because of the 
natural flora and fauna.  Fresh milk can contain pathogenic organisms 
along with the good stuff so if there is any doubt, it should be 
Pasteurized, especially for fresh cheese.

Aging hard cheese reduces the likelihood that the bad stuff will survive 
so it is far safer than fresh cheese.  If you have survived your fresh 
cheese efforts and drink the milk that way, it would indicate that the 
milk is probably safe.

Use fresh milk exactly like you would use pasteurized milk except that 
you can dispense with the calcium chloride but you still must use the 
usual starters to assure the timely acidification.  The natural stuff 
will still be there to add character as it ages.

You might also find that your goat milk is lacking in butterfat for a 
nice smooth cheese so try upping the level by adding extra cream if you 
can separate it.

Good luck,

js

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