I've made the cheese from cow's milk, but never goat. I'm thinking the goat cheese will have a sharper flavor. Let us know how it turns out. Are you going to season it or leave it plain?

I'm going to attempt yogurt in a few days. It's supposed to be fairly easy and I'm trying to reduce my purchases of plastic containers/packaging. I may give cottage cheese a try too.

The goat cheese will be as good as the milk. the fresher the milk the less "goaty" the cheese.

It can have a strong flavor that some like and some don't. The "goaty" description can be applicable.

The word in French for goat cheese is "chevre". There are many kinds, some are pungent and some less so.

Good luck.

Well, to be precise the word for "goat" in French is "chevre". It's commonly used here in the USA to mean soft goat cheese.

It isn't often a sometimes pedantic person (me) finds themselves on the receiving end of a comment from another pedantic person. I was trying to avoid a language lesson. I do speak French pretty well.

My experience in France is that while sometimes specifics of cheeses can be found on a label (if from raw milk is an example), information is often limited. Cheese from cow's milk isn't usually described as "vache" (cow). Roquefort is made with sheep's milk but it isn't labeled "mouton". But in France goat cheese is regularly called and labeled as chevre, both on packages and on menus.

So yes, chevre means goat. Goat cheese, in a departure from other kinds of cheeses, is labeled and described as chevre to involve the animal's name. If your experience differs from mine, please share it. .

Sharp may have been the wrong word to use; perhaps tangy is a more apt description. Last summer, I bought some smoked blueberry goat cheese that was exceptional. Between the smokey flavor, the tang of the cheese and the sweet/tart of the blueberries, I couldn't stay out of it. Hoping to be able to buy more of it when we are over on the coast this summer.

I'm planning to have some plain and some with some garlic chives, salt and pepper. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm sure it will be good since I've made the cow's milk type before and I love Feta cheese so I'm not afraid of a pungent taste if that's how it turns out.

When speaking French, I believe it's a matter of nuance. If the context, such as on a cheese label, or at the cheese counter, or perhaps even when serving food, saying "goat" implies cheese. In the context of Ritaweeda making cheese, just saying "goat" makes sense. I said "to be precise" in response to "The word in French for goat cheese is 'chevre'." Outside of the context of cheese being implied, the word(s) for goat cheese is "fromage de chèvre". In the USA, if you say you need to buy chevre, most people who know the word assume you mean soft white cheese. Not goat brie, not goat gouda, not goat milk or meat or a living, cud chewing goat. I have had primarily French speakers correct me on this very point, which is why I brought it up.

If you haven't lived there, you perhaps haven't had the experiences I have.

In particular, the French LOVE to correct less than precise language use of people for whom the language isn't their mother tongue. Especially English speakers and our accent in their language is as easily identifiable and obvious as their accent is in ours. Even if it's just short terminology, they'll speak up. By contrast, daily French includes far more shortened versions of words, abbreviations, acronyms, lingo, etc. than is typical in English.

Many cheese types have an AOC designation. Cheese eaters/lovers know what to expect of the dozens of well known types and either know what kind of milk they're made from or don't care. Brie, gouda, and all the other known type names. typically have an AOC designation with specific geography, ingredients, etc., closely prescribed and enforced. The types you've mentioned are made from cow milk, not from goat milk, and everyone knows that. No one would ever ask for cow milk cheese unless it was because of a specific allergy or other food problem.

If you were in a cheese store or at a cheese or deli counter in a supermarket, you wouldn't ask about "fromage de chevre". You'd just say "chevre".

I made the cheese, it turned out great, and it isn't a bit strong in taste, but one quart of milk only made a ramekin full so I went ahead and seasoned it but it was very good and very mild without it. Wish I had some Pita chips to go with it. As for what the Frenchies call it - yes I knew what Chevre is but I'm American and I'll call it goat cheese if I want to especially since I made it myself.

Good for you, glad you enjoyed it.

I just thought of a funny encounter I had ages ago, still in my 20s, in France. My French accent and ability weren't nearly as developed as now (I'm rusty without daily use but it comes back when I go back) but they weren't bad. The recollection approximate, it was a while ago

(accent marks not used for ease of typing)

We were in a bistro, ordering dinner. I saw they had onion soup, a typical bistro offering, it's one of my favorites.

I used the right restaurant phrase to begin to order and ended with "soupe a l'oignons gratinee", which is what the menu said.

He put down his pad and said to me (in English) - I know you speak French, your accent is very good and thank you for that. Can you imagine how long it would take me to write down orders if everyone said "soupe a l'oignons gratinee"? I'm busy, I don't have that much time. We call it ""la gratinee", please just say that.

"Biens, recommencons. Que desirez-vous?" (In French- "we'll start again. What would you like?)

LOL!! That's very cute. I haven't been to France in quite some time, but my experiences there were quite different. Perhaps a gender thing? Attitude? Everyone was always quite nice to me, and no one corrected me. One lady in a bakery asked me a question quite beyond my language skills and was perplexed when I told her I didn't understand the question, which was probably something a three year old could answer, but that's the most.

"If you were in a cheese store or at a cheese or deli counter in a supermarket, you wouldn't ask about "fromage de chevre". You'd just say "chevre"." That's what I said! in the context of knowing one were speaking of cheese, one would just say "chevre" but the word just means "goat" not "goat cheese". The context of the cheese counter provides the "cheese" meaning.

Ritaweeda, I'm sorry this discussion has made a blot on your thread. I appreciate that you know what you want to call your cheese. :) Most of all, it's great to hear how successful your cheese was!

Do you have a sous vide setup? If so, you might find it useful for making other kinds of cheeses, if you're getting into it. :)

We're widely traveled in Europe and lived there for a number of years. Without a doubt, the consistently NICEST people we've encountered have been the French. I've heard other travelers' stories (including from many Brits) to the contrary.

I attribute my always happy and pleasant experiences, including daily life conducted in French, to the fact that when I'm in practice, I speak French pretty well. I've done business meetings in French, have made presentations and ran employee meetings in French, and have had many political and philosophical discussions in social settings in French. I'm comfortable and always understood. Locals in any country appreciate the efforts any foreigner has made to learn their language enough to be competent and respond accordingly.

This one experience, which was in Paris, is the only time I've encountered anything like that and it was cute and also gentle. I've always thought of Paris as France's New York. People are harried, harassed, stressed, and that sometimes affects their moods, but almost always good natured and friendly. This guy was having a bad day. We've been all over the country and elsewhere, most people are less stressed. Just like in the US, outside of crowded city centers.

ritaweeda, It's interesting to hear about your cheese making. Thanks for sharing. I've only made ricotta, and only twice. A local store used to discount their close dated milk (cow) to ridiculously low prices. That was a good time to experiment with cheese and yogurt. I've made a lot more yogurt than cheese. I have not seen similar prices in a long time.

Where do you get your goat milk?

Rita, glad you enjoyed your goat cheese! Whatever it's called!

I used to have goats and made it 40 years ago!

Believe it or not I found the goat milk at Walmart. Would love to find a local source for it. The thing is, from what little I've seen online about it, the type of fresh cheese that I made does not store for a very long time. I don't know whether it's because it's a fresh product with no preservatives which might be the case with store-bought. Also it's not an aged cheese and it's not made with rennet, don't know enough about that. So Walmart only had it in quart sized cartons.

I've never been overseas and don't speak French other than knowing a few French words, mostly pertaining to food. I can't recall ever knowing anyone from France. I had always been told that the French are a very haughty people. I'd rather view their attitude as just being very proud. My last job involved dealings with publishers in the U.S. and Canada. I've never had a more pleasant experience on every occasion that I talked to any of the French Canadians. So polite and pleasant in every way. And I melted every time I talked to a lot of them with that sublime accent. I could have kept them on the phone for hours just to listen to it. So I'll save stating any negative opinions about the French until one of them proves me wrong.

Oh, thank you ! I love goat cheese, but never thought of making it. I've made ricotta, so the process is familiar.

We plan to travel in the Caribbean on our boat, and I think cream cheese might be hard to find. But I bet goat milk will be available. I could make it!😏

My DD and I paid to go to a Goat Farm and learned a lot. Milking them was weird, but successful. The biggest thing they stressed was cleanliness handling the raw milk. They made 9 varieties of goat cheese - most of which I had never tasted. You haven't enjoyed until you've tasted chevre blue cheese.