What Is The Best Milk For Cheese Making?

Curd Nerd — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:17:19 +0000

If you’ve been making cheese for any period of time you’re probably aware of the conversations about raw milk versus pasteurized milk, or perhaps you’ve already started thinking about it from your own perspective.

If you do a quick Google search on raw milk vs pasteurized milk you can get lost in the plethora of information and sometimes heated debate about this subject very easily.

But what’s the fuss all about milk and how does it affect Cheese Making?

Milk Definition – Which Milk Is Which

Raw Milk

This is milk straight from the source be it cow, goat, sheep or even buffalo. It is full of natural bacteria and organisms.

Pasteurized Milk

This is milk which has been heat treated to up to 172 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds or more in order to destroy any undesirable bacteria present.

Ultra Pasteurized (UP) Milk

Most of the milk in the grocery stores, unfortunately, is ultra-pasteurized which means it is heated up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 1 second. All natural organisms in the milk, including those that are beneficial, are killed with this treatment.

Ultra High Temperature (UHT) Sterilization Milk

Milk treated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit which again, renders it totally free of all bacteria, good or bad.

Is Pasteurized Milk The Best Milk For Cheese Making?

Pasteurization involves heating the milk to a high temperature and then rapidly cooling it. The purpose of pasteurization is to kill unwanted bacteria including Listeria, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella.

As well as give the milk a longer shelf life, which is of course more economically sound for suppliers. Some suspect this is now the primary reason for suppliers pasteurizing their product.

Rather than any real need for the control of bacteria (assuming most commercial milk comes from quality, regulated farms with tested, healthy animals), but this post isn’t here to add to that debate.

The pasteurization process means that beneficial, natural bacteria are also completely removed from the milk and therefore are also devoid in the resulting cheese.

In addition, with heat treating the natural enzymes and proteins in the milk are killed or damaged and because the whey proteins have been altered as part of the process the curd you get tends to be slightly weaker, requiring the addition of products such as Calcium Chloride (CACL2) as a remedy.

Finally, pasteurization definitely changes the flavor of the milk and therefore also the flavor of the cheese. Pasteurized milk has a slightly cooked taste which imparts its flavor into the final cheese.

Raw milk cheese has a much more fresh and complex flavor and a good raw milk cheese is normally a more superior milk cheese than a good cheese made with pasteurized milk.

Raw Milk Is The Best Milk For Cheese Making

One thing is certain, and that is that it is not recommended to use Ultra Pasteurized Milk or UHT Milk at all. Neither will give you good results when making cheese and it is worth making the effort to source even a good quality (preferably Organic) pasteurized milk rather than use these products for cheese making.

What can sway the decision for cheese makers, about whether to use raw milk or not, is if you are considering selling your cheeses.

Depending on which country you live in, raw milk products may or may not be legally sold while some regions will allow raw milk cheese to be sold, but only after it has been aged for a certain minimum duration.

If you do decide to use Raw milk for cheese making, ensure that you know that the animals the milk comes from are healthy and ethically farmed and that the milk has been sourced and stored in exceptionally clean conditions.

For how to source your milk you might want to read our earlier post We’re Going To Need Some Milk

What About Homogenization?

Homogenization breaks down the butterfat in milk to allow it to integrate in with the rest of the milk rather than sitting on the top. It does cause minor damage to the milk but not nearly as much as pasteurization.

If you still want to play it on the safe side, you can pasteurize your raw milk at home.

This process can still reduce the amount of good bacteria but the structure of the milk isn’t damaged as severely with home pasteurization due to a lower heating temperature than used by commercial milk manufacturers.

To pasteurize your raw milk at home heat it to 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes then cool down to cheese making temperature if using straight away or cool rapidly and then refrigerate if using later.

I’m interested in your thoughts on raw milk cheese versus cheese made with other milk products. Let’s not get too heated (mind the pun) here but your comments are always appreciated.

Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

Cheese Making – We’re Going To Need Some Milk

Curd Nerd — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:06:09 +0000

This post is Part 1 of the continued basic home cheese making instructions. See the Curd Nerd Beginner page or the Basic Instructions category for previous parts.

All of the cheeses you will read about here will be made with raw milk. Fresh, raw, cows milk to be exact.

Unfortunately I don’t have access to goats milk so recipes that should traditionally be made with goats milk, have been made with cows milk. I know, it’s not true to form but a home cheese maker must work with what they have.

I have free access to all the fresh, raw cows milk I need and for that I am VERY lucky. It makes cheese making even more pleasurable because I don’t have to worry at all about where to get my milk and how much I am paying.

If possible I recommend working out an agreement with a local farmer to exchange homemade cheese for milk.

Depending on the country you are in, some countries allow you to purchase a certain amount of raw milk from the farm gate so it’s worth checking out the rules where you live.

If you live in the city or suburbs or just don’t want to travel to a local farm then try to buy the best organic milk available. You really will notice it in your cheese.

Use your milk as fresh as possible, and refrigerate it until about an hour before you are ready to start making. Take your milk out of the fridge an hour before and let it come up to room temperature (unless it is stifling hot in your room) before starting.

It is critical to keep your milk as clean from any contaminants as possible so if you are collecting raw milk from a farm use food grade containers and sterilise everything after each use.

Milk will change during the year as cows and goats go through different feeding cycles. Spring often delivers the best milk when new grass is growing and available for feeding. When the milk changes you may also notice changes in your resulting cheeses.

It helps to keep notes so that you can learn and understand the effects and be aware of them for the next year.

Store bought milk is also affected but variations may not be as dramatic due to the processing and standardisation of commercial milk.

If using fresh farm milk you may have periods when the herd are not being milked or when calving season comes so be aware of these possible ‘dry’ times.

If you get addicted to this hobby, like I have, vats of fresh milk look like pure gold and get the mind boggling with all the cheese that could be made. Milk takes on a whole other dimension once you start making cheese.

As a beginner, you might also want to read up on Which Milk Is Best For Cheese Making for some extra insight.

And you also will want to have a basic understanding of what Lipase is and how you can use it in your cheese making.

Do you have any questions or comments about Home Cheese Making? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!