Hi Everyone,  hope that you all had a great Christmas.  Enjoying my new Jersey cow,  Bessie and her milk very much.  However with 14 gallons of milk or more per week I have to make a lot of cheese, yogurt etc.  I’m looking for a good Pepper Jack recipe and also a good feta cheese recipe for cow milk, not goat.  So far I’ve made Gouda, Leiden ,  Havarti with peppers in it,  cream cheese, butter , yogurt and mozza.  I would also like to try cheddar…..any good recipes please send them on.

Well, if you have made Gouda already, you could simply make a Gouda with peppers. I use the standard Gouda recipe for a lot of additives like dried onions, dried garlic and chives (gives a kind of Cotswold cheese) or dried red chili peppers for a kind of Pepper Jack. I cook the additives in a bit of water for about 10 minutes and also add the water to the milk. That is, when I brine the cheese. When I add the salt to the cheese instead of brining it, I mix the salt with the additives and a bit of water a night before making cheese. I think when you have your own source of milk and are making cheese so often, it’s worthwhile to stick with a few basic recipies and variations on those recipes.

I just edited my Just Jack recipe in the Recipe section. That’s the best pepper jack recipe that I have made. It’s moist, and it’s creamy. The recipe that was making was always a little dry.