Caution when using raw milk to make cheese

be VERY careful using raw milk.

the cheese woman - Home cheese making book: http://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Making-Recipes-Delicious/dp/1580174647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269033850&sr=8-1

Recommends pasteurising all milk. raw milk has a lot of bacteria in.
I guess if you were making the queso - most would get killed by the heat - but bacterial spores are a bit tougher and could survive.

So if you use raw milk sterilise it first. ie: not worth the hassle.

Couple of points for the queso type cheeses.
1) If you heat the milk to 150 - it makes great cream cheese.
The hotter you heat the milk the harder the curds and resulting cheese becomes.
2) you can add herbs and some seasonings directly to the milk. NOT SALT.
Adding salt to the milk directly leads to small curds (possibly why it's done for the ricotta)
The last batch of cream cheeses I added 2 tsp of garlic powder and 2 tsp of smoked paprika to the milk and a little salt to the curds hetaed milk to 150 before adding vinegar and pressed them.
Ended up with firm orangey rounds of a very creamy cheese. thumbs up all round from my regular tasting panel.
Soon as I figure out the pic attachment controls for this paricular BB I'll upload some :-)

3) fine mesh net curtain works at least as well as cheesecloth and is much cheaper and easier to get hold of :-)

And's it got14u who's to blame for my new found cheese making fetish :-)