[Sca-cooks] Autumn cheese?

[Rikke D. Giles]

Greetings all,
Sooo.... I make cheese.  I make it from milk obtained from my own goats.  I milk them by hand.  I have friends who do the same with their cows.

The animals' milk varies with their stage of lactation.  When the babies are first born, and yes this is in the spring in period, the milk is full of nutrition - protein, vitamins and not so much fat.  As the lactation cycle goes on, and the baby(ies) grow, the milk changes in composition.  Older kids and calves therefore get fattier milk.  This is probably in preparation for winter; an example of classic 'fattening up' for the difficult season to come.  The milking does, indeed all the animals, fatten up at this time.   My goats in the autumn and early winter can give milk with up to around 14%, yes, 14%, butterfat.

Making cheese in autumn, in the wetter/cooler countries, has certain challenges.  I live in WA state.  When the autumn rains start, after the dryness of summer, all the moulds and fungi that live in the enviroment naturally go haywire.  One day the blackberries are great on the vine; the next day they are mummified husks due to the moulds that make blue cheese blue.  At this time of year, without pasteurizing milk, every cheese tends to become blue, sooner or later.  The cheeses 'blow' because of other kinds of bacteria and fungi which are suddenly dominant in the environment.   The critters stay active, albeit in much less number, as the autumn tends to winter.  

In winter the goats, if they were not supplementally fed, get quite skinny.  They are living off the fat they put on in late summer and autumn.  Their milk suffers in composition as well, and if the does were not in good shape, did not fatten up in autumn, they are likely to die or become severely malnourished if they are heavily milked.  Thus, in period, most animals would have been allowed to dry off at this time, in preparation for the birthing seasons of early and mid spring.  Early spring is a great growth period for all the animals.  They regain their pre-winter weights; the mothers to be put on a lot of weight and in the last 6 weeks to month of their pregnancy they develop udders and their bellies grow big.

Yes, the things the animal eats affect the taste and properties of the milk.  Cows and goats fed on sage brush have milk that tastes awful.  If they eat garlic or onions, the taste is in the milk.  Female lactating goats exposed to male goats during the rut season tend to have milk that tastes like, well, male goat.  The flavor is desired in some European goat cheeses - it's variously called 'barnyard' or 'earthy'.  Americans tend to dislike the flavor greatly. 

Skimming milk:  Do not in any way think that modern 'skimmed' milk has any relation to the milk skimmed by hand in period.  That white chalky water milk substitute is devoid of anything resembling milk.  It is impossible, at least in my experience, to hand skim milk down to lower than about 2% or so.   Our 'whole' milk, as bought in the store, has had the butterfat removed and put back in a standard amount.  Believe me, a lot of fat is left over after that.  So it goes to make butter or whatever.  Store bought whole milk, homogenized and pastuerized, has little in common with whole milk straight from a cow or goat or other animal.  

With cheesemaking:  It's impossible to make cheese well from modern UHT treated milk (ultra pastuerized), whether 'whole' or 'fat free' or whatever.  The high heat treatment has broken the milk proteins so much they can not coagulate to form cheese curds, or any other kind of curd.  Hence the milk's ability to sit on the shelf at room temperature for months on end.  

While making cheese from storebought 'vat pastuerized' milk is possible it's more difficult, and the product is not as good, as using whole milk which has not been homogenized or pastuerized.  While the resulting cheese from storebought milk can itself be ok, there is much less of it than when using non commercialized milk, it has fewer vitamins and minerals (at least to judge from color and taste) and the whey left over is a watery pale white with nothing much to recommend it.  Whey from non commericalized milk - cow, goat, sheep, pastuerized or not - is a vibrant yellow-green.  After ricotta is made from it (and the last of the white cheese proteins removed) it is the color of mountain dew. 

If desired, I'll take some pictures and do some comparisons.  I teach enough cheese making classes that I can easily make cheese from store bought milk to compare with cow or goat milk from the farm.  

Now, I am posititve that my goats eat better than medieval goats.  They get grain supplements when milking, they get good hay, they are fed a mineral mixture.  But I still see seasonal variation in milk quality, in resulting cheeses, in amounts of butterfat and protein (and cheese yield), in body weight and condition of the goats and so on.

Hope this helps give a bit info.  Hmm, one other thing, various English authors mention autumn and winter cheeses.  Markham, for instance, mentions it in the cheese section of the Good Housewife.  I'm pretty sure the seasonal variation is mentioned in Victorian cheese making books and articles, but I'd have to check to be sure.  I don't know off the top of my head.

Magistra Aelianora de Wyntringham
Barony of Dragon's Laire, An Tir