Milk!

What would cheese be without milk? I've been lucky enough to get up-close and personal with lots of milk (goat mostly) and I'm amazed by how much diversity there is to it. This is a subject with a lot going on, way to much for me to get into here, so I'm just going to talk about what's on my mind at the moment.

The Source!

Milk comes from mammals (duh!), so I guess cheese could be made from the milk of any mammal, but there are some common species that will be contributing to the kind of cheeses you can buy readily.

 And just a quick side note - of any species, you only milk the girls! I've been asked that more than once while working on dairies and I have to stop myself from laughing. You can give milking males a shot, but I doubt you're gonna like the result. 

Cows

Holsteins in a large scale dairy operation

In North America we see any dairy product and we instantly think cow. They are big, high producing and our industrial agriculture economy is built around them. Cow's milk has large fat molecules, which are difficult to digest, and which cause lactose intolerance. These same large fat molecules also bind together readily and separate out, which is how cream rises to the top of non-homogenized milk. From cow's milk comes cream and butter. Yes!

The ability to separate is what makes it possible to fiddle with fat content when making cheese from cow's milk. Think about cream cheese, cheeses with double cream (made with about twice the fat content of whole milk) and even triple creams! Delicious. Cow's milk also has a rich yellow color in comparison to milk from other animals. 

A Jersey cow

The Holstein is the highest volume producing dairy animal and used largely in industrial dairy, but there are so many different breeds of cow! And each gives a different character of milk. Jersey and Guernsey cows are known for having some of the richest and most yellow of all cow milk. When I see a super yellow cheese I think of these cows right away. 

Don't forget Dexters! They are mini dairy cows!

An American Alpine goat

Goats
My first love in the dairy world. It was goats that lured me into farming four years ago, and they've had my heart ever since. They produce smaller volumes of milk, but the lower levels of lactose and smaller fat molecules make goat's milk easy to digest. You'll need a special machine to get cream or butter out of goat's milk (Coach Farm does this, I've had their goat butter - it is a little harder than cow butter, pure white and with a texture somewhere between cow butter and coconut oil. The flavor is AMAZING). Goat's milk is the most pure white of the common milk producers and has a distinct flavor. I won't say it's a bad flavor, but it's goaty. Goat's milk also has a high concentration of vitamins and minerals. 

In cheese that fresh goaty flavor is what I love most. It gives a taste like cut grass and a clean animal. Goat cheeses, especially fresh cheeses, are snow white. There are lots of cheeses made traditionally with goats milk, and some that must be made with it to qualify for their PDO status. 

Just like cows, there are a wide variety of dairy goat breeds and each gives slightly different milk. I could talk about goats forever, but I won't. Here are some of my favorite breeds:

A La Mancha goat. Don't worry, her ears are actually large for her breed!

A Nigerian Dwarf goat

Sheep
There is an old saying 'cows for butter, goats for milk and sheep for cheese'. Personally I might switch goats to cheese and sheep to milk as sheep's milk  is known for being wonderfully creamy and sweet. They are not the volume producers that cows are, but they have the highest average fat content of their milk, and less of a funky flavor than goat milk. Their milk is very white, only slightly less so than goat milk. 

Fresian Lambs at Red Hill Cheese

Cheese made from sheep's milk is wonderfully rich and delicate in flavor. In North America cow cheese dominates and goat cheese seems like the second most popular, but sheep cheese is really worth tasting. If you've never had it before try and find some! Just writing this is making me want to try more sheep cheeses. 

A Lacaune sheep. This is where Roquefort comes from!

There are not as many dairy sheep breeds as cow or goat, and in North America it is almost exclusively limited to the Fresian and Lacaune breeds.