Update:  After draining for most of the day, I now have about a pound of very creamy white cheese.  It looks like it could drain some more, so I will put it on the cool porch for the night with some weight on it.  I am saving the whey for ricotta which I will attempt to make tomorrow night.  Hopefully this will not be a total loss.  It tastes good, and the pancakes were great.  I think that it will be better once I add salt to it tomorrow.

Cheers, will be trying again next Friday.  Maybe feta!

Hey all, I just wanted to post some information that I just received from Country Fresh.  I called them and asked them if they Ultra-pasteurized their milk and they said no.  Strictly pasteurized.  For those of you in Michigan this should be good news.

Now if I can get my rennet levels…

When I rennet I’m very careful not to jostle or bump the pot. I’ve heard this can be detrimental to getting a clean break.

Thank you, I knew about that already.  They just sit and sit and sit.  I can’t wait til this next weekend and I get to try again. 

Cheers.

I found my raw milk sources from Realmilk.com. Not sure if you’ve heard about it. There are listings for your state.

Tks Heathers, I will look into it.

I have a report on my 2nd attempt.  The report is that I should not have thrown away the first attempt, but drained it.  My 2nd turned out wonderful for a non-ripened cheese.  It took about 12 hours to drain the curd, and then I put about 10 lbs on it in the cheese cloth over night on the porch to drain some more.  Today my wife mixed in kosher salt with the olives in one portion, chives in another, and strawberry jam in the other third. 

I had it on bagels for dinner tonight and man was it good.  I am kicking myself in the but for giving up on the first batch so soon.

Thank you all for your help.  I really appreciate it.

God bless.

LOL, yup I made a tapenade type mix with my small batch I wanted to use for mozzarella but waited too long and it curdled.Olive oil, salt, olives, basil

Yes that happened with my first goat cheese. But who doesn’t love a good tapenade…

Follow up:

When I drained the curd for the neufchatel, my colander was not large enough for all of it so my wife saved some of the undrained curd.  Last night for dinner she used some of it making creamed peas.  Excellent.  I am learning that if it doesn’t work for cheese, it can be used in other things as well.  I am looking forward to it in Chicken and dumplings.  Yummmmm!

LOL, yup, soups are great secondary users (or pasta)