Chevre Cheese - Homemade Goats Cheese

Jess and I were on Vancouver Island visiting my family and we took a day trip to Salt Spring Island. We were planning on going to a market but when we got there we found out that they weren't going to run the market for another week (typical island time starting something three weeks after it's planned). We decided to just go to the places that were supposed to be at the market. One of our favourites was the Salt Spring Island Cheese    company. They are mostly known for a fresh goats cheese that they pair with different things to flavour it. After touring the facility and abusing the samples I decided that it would be a good challenge to make it on my own.
I found it to be very easy to make a cheese that was just as good as Salt Spring and about a third of the cost.

Ingredients:

• 2 liters goats milk
• 1/4 tsp mesophilic culture  (Bought online from http://www.thecheesemaker.com/)
• 1 drop liquid vegetable rennet mixed in 1/8 cup water
• cheese cloth
• sea salt 
• flavouring of your choice (I used garlic chili and olive tapenade)

Directions:
* Plan to make this recipe 2 days before you plan on eating it. It is not time consuming on your part, it just requires a lot of setting and draining time.

1. Heat the milk to 75 degrees F.
2. Sprinkle the mesophilic culture on the milk and let it dissolve for a couple minutes.
3. Stir the milk with up and down motions of your spoon.
4. Add the rennet mixture and gently stir.
5. Cover the pot and set aside for 16 hours at room temperature.
6. After culturing it will look like yogurt sitting in whey (the clear liquid).
7. Line a colander with a couple layers of cheese cloth.
8. Pour in the cheese then tie the corners up and hang it from a cupboard handle to drain.
9. Drain for 6 to 8 hours.
10. Remove from the cheese cloth and add some sea salt. If your going to add herbs line a short glass with olive oil add the herbs then the cheese.

This is an easy recipe that produces amazing creamy cheese that you can kick up to another level with herbs or sauces that you probably have in the refrigerator.