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make your own chevre rough and tumble farmhouse

How to Make Your Own Chevre

Chevre is a very easy cheese to make using your goat's milk.
5 from 1 vote
Cook Time 18 hours

Equipment

  • Large Stock Pot
  • Lid
  • Slotted Spoon
  • Colander
  • Cheese Cloth
  • Bowl

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Gallong Goat's Milk
  • Chevre starter culture or mesophilic culture and rennet

Instructions
 

  • Put one gallon of goat's milk into your stainless steel pot.
  • Heat the milk to 86 degrees fahrenheit. Remove from heat.
  • Sprinkle your packet of culture/rennet across the top of the milk and let it sit for about two minutes.
  • After two minutes, stir in the culture until it is thoroughly dissolved. Thirty second or so should do it.
  • Cover your pot with the lid and let it sit for around 12 hours, until it has gotten thick. You should be able to see a difference between the curd and the whey. The whey will be a light yellow liquid on top, and the curd will be a white mass beneath it.
  • Line the colander with cheesecloth. If you are using store bought cheesecloth, I'd do 4 layers.
  • Place your colander and cheesecloth over a bowl to catch the whey that runs out. Gently scoop the curd from the whey (you can use a slotted spoon but I just use my hands) and place it in the colander.
  • Tie up the ends and hang it from a cupboard so the whey can drain from the cheese. I use a hair tie wrapped around the top for hanging.
  • Let it hang anywhere from 6-8 hours, depending on the texture you like your chevre to be. A longer hang time will give you a dryer, crumblier cheese.
  • Remove it from the cheese cloth and place it in a bowl. Salt to taste. Start with a tablespoon and mix that in well. Taste it, add more if you want it saltier.
  • Optional: Shape the Cheese
  • At this point you could place it in a mold of some kind to give it a shape. If you are going to do that, line your mold with cheese cloth, then press the cheese in.
  • It is best eaten within a week or you can freeze it for six months.

Notes

First, this recipe is going to sit for 12 hours, then sit for around 6 hours. Try to start this recipe so you aren't having to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to finish your cheese.