Should I use raw milk to make the healthiest cheese?

I've had this group in mind for over a year, but life.....
Anyway, Dr Mercola did an article on cheese rennet this past week and my wife was screaming mad. She loves cheese.
Well, with your help we will be making our own.

I live in a state where raw dairy is not legal for humans, but it can be bought for animals. Should I use raw milk to make the healthiest cheese?

Thanks

Welcome to the forum.

You must know something I don't know about cheesemaking.

I thought that some cheeses do not use rennet and instead use vinegar or a culture.

I did not know that raw milk was necessary either.

I hope Kate will chime in with her wisdom.

In my neck of the woods it's traditional to use thistle rennet to make cheese.



Photo from the wiki article on the cardoon, or Cynara cardunculus

You can absolutely make cheese from pasteurized milk. And if you're going to pasteurize it as part of your process, I'm not sure I buy that there's much of an advantage to starting with raw milk, though I'm certainly willing to learn. But you don't have to heat it much.

Rennet curdles cheese better than acids do, forms a smoother less grainy curd, and doesn't require the severe heating up to attain a curd. I very much prefer to use unpasteurized raw milk, full of native microbes, when I'm making this kind of cheese. I trust the biology and it seems like the end-product is better, but I haven't done an actual taste-test or anything.

You can make cheese without any dairy products at all. Being on a  mostly whole food plant-based diet (WFPB), I'm familiar with a couple of really high quality dairy-free cheese producers in the market now. One is Miyoko's Creamery, which despite it's recent CEO ouster and insider shakeup, still makes excellent products. Another is Chao. Treeline is one I'd like to try but it isn't available locally yet.

j

I usually go with pastured milk because most of my cheese recipes have us heating the milk to scald (home pasteurize it) before adding any culture and rennet.  Having pasteurised milk saves me this extra step of doing it myself.

If you do go with raw milk, check out the farm and how they milk.  If the farmer knows it's for animal consumption, they aren't always as careful with their milk as for human consumption.  When I thought I wanted to have a dairy goat flock, I spent a lot of time learning from local farmers and they all have the same approach.  If poop gets in the milk, pick it out, put that milk in the bucket to sell to those who claim it's for animal consumption.  Human consumption was a bit better, but still... not as clean as I expected from reading about historical dairies.  There's only one farmer in town with standards high enough for my personal consumption of raw milk, and sadly, she no longer has any goats.  

Raw milk is awesome!  But it also requires trust that the milk was handled correctly.  If you can get it from somewhere you trust, then it makes amazing cheese.  


Another thing you can do is to use a traditional yoghurt culture for cheese making as this has a lot of the good bacteria from raw milk.  I used to use Villie (I think the spelling) culture from GEM supplies.  You buy the culture once and keep it going like a sourdough starter.  Very good for places where raw milk is restricted.  

I prefer whole, raw milk, for the creamy texture and rich flavors. Even 'whole' milk, from the store has had some of the fat skimmed off, to keep the butter fat content consistent. It's first skimmed of all the fat, then some of the fat goes back, depending on how it will be labled(skim/non-fat; 1%; 2%; 'whole'/4%). The exact butterfat content in fresh, unskimmed milk will not only vary from breed to breed, but also from cow to cow. Even an individual cow (sheep, goat, camel, yak, etc) will have fluctuations, depending on her diet, exercise, stresses, and how recently she calved. So, if you're looking for perfect uniformity, the stuff at the store will give you that. If you want a generally richer, creamier cheese, with nothing added to or removed from the milk, and aren't concerned with the occasional minor variance, raw, whole is probably the way to go.

Fresh raw milk from healthy animals will make the healthiest cheese, but raw milk from bad handling practices and unhealthy animals can cause frustrating issues when making cheese, so it's good to ask lots of questions about milk.

If I were looking to purchase raw milk for cheesemaking, I would be asking about the animal's health, whether they are ever given antibiotics or other medications, whether they ever have mastitis issues, what they are eating (silage feeding can cause issues in cheese, excessive grain feeding can also be a problem), and the handling practises - is everything very clean and the milk chilled quickly? How fresh would the milk be when you get it?

The most rewarding way to access raw milk is to raise it yourself if you can - that way you know your own handling and feeding practises, and fresh milk makes the best cheese.

In my cheese book I go into best practises for handling and storing milk for cheesemaking, along with which non-raw options will work for different cheeses.

It's possible to make your own rennets too, either from animals or from certain plants, or to purchase traditional animal rennet (Walcoren is a popular brand) or microbial rennet, which is vegetarian, GMO-free, and meets organic standards.

I found this on making rennet. The real, animal rennet. Pretty cool;
https://homesteadersofamerica.com/how-to-make-rennet-cheesemaking/
I hope this inspires some of you folks to try making your own.
I think I'll buy mine: I do not have baby ruminants of any kind, so...

There are some considerations about making pasteurized vs raw milk cheese, culture starters, and rennets.

1. Store bought pasteurized milk may be different from home pasteurized milk. The pasteurized milk in the store may be pasteurized under much higher temperatures, or under pressure, which may materially alter the milk (de-nature proteins, fats, etc).

2. plant based rennets may not work as well as animal based rennets for long-ripened cheeses. Several authors state that they can impart a bitter flavour over time.

3. using kefir or clabbered milk as starter cultures will provide a much wider range of beneficial bacteria to the cheese (as long as the cheese remains raw) compared to commercial starter cultures that provide 1 - 4 strains.

4. long-ripened, raw cheeses are to be aged over 60 days to be deemed safe for human consumption. (If ripening in a fridge that is cooler than a cheese cave, I extend that timeline even longer). However, the youtuber 123homefree eats his raw, ripened cheeses at various stages, and does not adhere to the 60 day rule. He's a brave, experimenting soul.

5. raw, soft cheeses are delightful

6. yes, hygiene is everything with raw milk, and the health of the animal!!!

There’s pasteurized milk, and ultrapasteurized milk.  It’s my understanding that the ULTRApasteurized milk won’t make cheese, because the milk proteins are denatured in the ultra pasteurization process.

In my region of the USA, ultrapasteurized milk bears that label.  There is also “vat pasteurized” milk which does make good cheese, if you can’t get raw milk you trust.  

I took a cheesemaking class at the local food co-op and didn't like anything we made, but I'm a cheddar head and all we made was soft schmears.

That said, I rely on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Co because they've got an informative website and have been around for a long time.

Their FAQ page on milk and cream should give you some answers:  https://cheesemaking.com/blogs/learn/faq-milk-and-cream  TL;DR:  "You can make cheese with raw milk. However, you need to be 110% sure of the milk quality. The milk needs to come from tested animals and been kept scrupulously clean. "

If raw milk isn't legal for humans in your state, you have no idea whether it's fit for use.  I'd vote no on using the animal quality stuff.