I’ve always loved the tang of goat cheese, or chèvre. Unfortunately, goat milk is hard to find in my area. Local stores tend to carry one ultrapasteurized brand or a powdered version—neither of which works for cheese. Regulations for selling milk directly to individuals are so strict, convoluted, and enforced that it feels like a black market. I occasionally trade with friends who are milking goats (and have momma and babies willing to share), but mostly I gave up on making soft cheese.

That changed when I took a chance on fromage blanc. I’d written off this cow’s milk cheese as too mild for my tastes. But it has a surprising amount of tang and flavor. Best of all, the technique for soft cheeses really does work across milk types—cow or goat, reduced fat or whole milk or cream. It can be soft and spreadable or drained until it crumbles. It can be shaped or molded, and it absorbs flavors like herbs, zests, and spices. Learn to make soft cheeses, and you have so many choices. You can do it!

The Technique

When you add up the time you spend actively making a soft cheese, it takes about 30 minutes. Each step is simple: heating, stirring, draining. What makes this cheese type so delicious is its slow ripening period and long draining time. Think of it like sourdough: letting it sit and work its magic without your help gives the best flavor.

The recipe below walks you through each step, but here’s the basic technique for soft cheeses:

1. Heat. Heat the milk to 75°F in a water bath, which takes about 15 minutes.
2. Culture. Sprinkle on the starter and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Stir. Stir in the starter, followed by the calcium chloride and then the rennet.
4. Ripen. Let it sit at room temperature for 12 hours.
5. Drain. Strain off the whey, and then let the curds drain at room temperature for 4–6 hours.
6. Salt. Mix in the salt and enjoy now or later.

The Ingredients

Soft cheeses are a step up from Lemon Cheese in terms of special ingredients. You have options for each, and they’ll be useful for many other cheese types and dairy products. Besides milk (more on types later), here’s what you’ll need:

• Mesophilic starter. This family of starter cultures is used for low-temperature cheeses. You can use the various types for a range of other dairy products besides soft cheeses, and they keep up to 2 years in the freezer. I use Aroma B for Homemade Sour Cream and Cultured Buttermilk. Flora Danica works for everything from cottage cheese to stinky rind cheeses. I like to use the MA 4000 series for its complexity; I keep it on hand for making semihard cheeses. All of these starter cultures also work for Dry-Salted Feta, and all can be used for the soft cheeses described in this post.
• Rennet. Rennet coagulates milk, gathering the proteins into curds. Traditionally made from animal sources, vegetable rennet has become as widely available. Liquid rennet can last a year in the fridge; tablets can last up to 5 years in the freezer. Either way, it will never go bad; it just may lose some of its coagulating power. It helps with all kinds of cheese, including feta and Quick Homemade Mozzarella.
• Calcium chloride. This additive helps firm up the curds and lets them clearly separate from the whey. The amount of calcium in milk can be affected by everything from the cow’s breed to the season to how long the milk sat at the store, all of which can be balanced out by a little calcium chloride. It’s usually optional but lasts indefinitely, so it’s worth keeping on hand. Brewers often use crystals (it balances the minerals in water too), but a liquid form is easiest to measure for small-batch cheese.
• Salt. You can buy cheese salt, which is finely textured and dissolves easily at low temperatures. A flaky kosher salt, like the Diamond Crystal brand I prefer for pickling, may be more readily available and works just as well.

If you can’t find these supplies locally, look for them online; I typically buy from New England Cheesemaking Supply, Cultures for Health, or Hoegger.

The Recipe

Ready to give it a try? Full details are in the recipe below, but here are the basics:
You just need milk and salt plus the cheesemaking ingredients described earlier.
1. Heat the milk.
2. Stir in the culture, calcium chloride, and finally rennet.
3. Leave to ripen.
4. Pour off the whey and drain.
5. Mix in salt and enjoy.

Make it, share it. Tag your photos: @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

You’ll find soft cheeses in cultures around the world, all essentially made using the technique given here. By changing up the milk type or source, you get a new type of cheese. Fromage blanc (white cheese) typically uses a low-fat milk. For quark, use the same technique with skim milk.

You can make richer cheese with this technique too. Add a pint of heavy cream, and you get Neufchâtel. Keep boosting the cream to milk ratio, and you end up with a reduced-fat or (using just cream) a full-fat cream cheese. For chèvre, swap out the cow’s milk for goat’s milk.

In all cases, avoid ultrapasteurized milk. That heat affects the milk so severely that rennet and even calcium chloride can’t make the curds join together in anything but rubbery chunks. Nonhomogenized (cream on top) milk is best: The fat globules haven’t been broken apart and stay suspended in the milk, giving you a jump-start on the process. My preferred readily available local sources for cow’s milk are Kalispell Kreamery and Lifeline Farm. Goat’s milk I find locally only if I’m lucky. Some other good milk sources for other areas are listed here.

What goes well with cheese? Pickles! Get a signed copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling to fill your shelves and fridge with vinegar and fermented pickles, chutneys, hot sauces, salsa, and more. At the same time, pick up the The Pickled Picnic to learn how to use pickles and leftover brine in a range of recipes. Click here to order.