Has anyone been successful making cheese from milk that has been frozen?  I have dairy goats and when I would be overloaded with milk would bag and freeze thinking I could use it for cheese making this winter when life slowed down.  Now I find out frozen milk won’t make a good hard cheese, possibly a soft chevre type.  My girls milk is always chilled as soon as possible, if I see I have way too much I start freezing.  I have made two batches of cheese with half fresh and half frozen and they seemed to work just fine, but I don’t have any fresh now.  I guess I am looking for some hopefully positive results before I spend a day or two making cheese only to have wasted my time.  Last year I made two 4 gallon batches of cheddar with frozen milk, got a nice curd and it seemed to act fine, I didn’t have a good cheese press and could not get it as tight as I should have and it did get moldy but I cut that off (aged 6 months) and the flavor was amazing, tasted like the expensive cave aged cheddar.  Now I have a nice press and more experience (well a little more experience) I was sure looking forward to getting some nice cheddar in the cave.  I have made regular gouda (again with raw goat milk) it turned out fantastic, I have several plain and one horseradish gouda, one butterkase and some little mason jar marcellini (sp).  OH and I have only used fresh kefir as a starter culture, it is supposed to have both thermo and meso bacteria, and I have a 5 pound cheddar in the cave (one of my half frozen half fresh makes). 

Wow, I guess this kind of works as an introduction!  I have a full time job, two hour commute every day, in the summer we have a huge garden, we have chickens for eggs, two calves I bottle raised this year with goat milk, my husband is home everyday in the winter, but gone 75% of the time in the summer so yes, cheese making has to wait until winter.

Sometimes I think I am crazy for taking on so much, but I love it, love my goats and the gardens, good thing to or I wouldn’t be so eager to get up every morning at 4am.

So frozen milk experience anyone?

Well, first of all, welcome to the forum.  Love to have new folks share their experiences.

I have never used frozen milk, nor have I heard of anyone who has - until now that is.  It sounds to me like you have answered your own questions about using frozen milk.  Seems your cheeses turned out quite well.  If a cheese with half frozen milk didn’t show any unfavorable characteristics, I’d say you would be good to go with 100%.  After all, experimentation is the key to progress.

And thank you for the wonderful introduction.  You came across like a neighbor visiting over cheese and crackers and a latte.

Thanks for the welcom!  I am a friendly sort..

Welcome to the Forum !!
Great you have your own Goats.
Goats milk is far more forgiving then cow milk and much healthier, you dont have the lactose problem that irritates people. Usually the problem with frozen cow milk is that it separates.
Love to see some pics of your cheese and goats.

I don’t have a good cheese picture, guess I need to start keeping a camera around when I am making cheese.  However I do happen to have goat pictures, lots but this one has three of my milking does plus the head of a meat producer and a young Guernsey/Alpine buck in the background.  These silly goats are so much fun, they are just as big of pet as my dog.  Fun to go to the pasture and call and see them all come running.  First time posting pictures on this forum, hope it come through.

They look great, I’ve heard allot of people have goats as close “Pets”.

Don’t show that photo to my wife!

Ah come on, everyone needs a couple goats!  I have a lot more pictures you can show your wife!

I had some dairy goats years ago, and I agree with Rick!

LOL, they are so lovable

This is the curd from my Colby make this weekend, from frozen milk, I think the curd was great what do you experienced cheese makers think?  Thanks!

Nothing wrong with that! looks great

Great looking curd!  And, since it was from fresh, i.e., not processed, milk - I’m guessing it was nice and firm as well.

BTW, I make a lot of Colby - it’s my wife’s fav - and I was wondering what temp you use for your cold water wash?  I’ve settled on 73 deg. F, and it gives me a really nice moist cheese.

This was my first time making a colby, I wasn’t as worried about the temp I put back in as I was the final temp, my first wash was luke warm and second was cool tap and my final temp was right on.  I am so unscientific, I have no meters I just go by feel.  This one actually made a nice looking cheese even though I didn’t have the perfect mold.  I am hoping for a nice moist cheese, I’m not sure I cooked it long enough though, seemed a little softer than I was expecting, guess time will tell.  I still have probably 20 gallons in the freezer, since this worked I’m not worried anymore.  Milking season will start again end of March so enjoying this break in the chore department.  All the gardens done and canned so no weeding and watering everyday, now no milking twice a day so other chores are getting caught up finally! 

Do you wax the colby?  I did.

I nice to do ones own style, nothing wrong with that, you end up with a unique cheese sometimes

lovinglife - 16 November 2015 02:59 PM

This was my first time making a colby, I wasn’t as worried about the temp I put back in as I was the final temp, my first wash was luke warm and second was cool tap and my final temp was right on.  I am so unscientific, I have no meters I just go by feel.  This one actually made a nice looking cheese even though I didn’t have the perfect mold.  I am hoping for a nice moist cheese, I’m not sure I cooked it long enough though, seemed a little softer than I was expecting, guess time will tell.  I still have probably 20 gallons in the freezer, since this worked I’m not worried anymore.  Milking season will start again end of March so enjoying this break in the chore department.  All the gardens done and canned so no weeding and watering everyday, now no milking twice a day so other chores are getting caught up finally! 

Do you wax the colby?  I did.

No, I don’t wax any of my cheeses.  I used to, but had too many problems with cracking wax and developing mold.  So I now vacuum seal exclusively.  It works quite well for me.