# Dairy production and cheese making course in Pretoria



## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

Last week I was on a dairy production and cheese making course in Irene South of Pretoria. It's with the Agricultural research council that has a farm there.

The course covered the theory on milk, enzymes and cultures used in cheese and yogurt. But we mainly did do practical runs for making halloumi, ricotta, feta, amasi and yogurt. In the factory they also made cheddar cheese, but in big vats.









Some Theory in class.









At the practicals.









The curd is getting ready









Curd, not yet separated from the whey.









separation is getting visible.









Separated curd getting ready to be pressed.









Look into the factory cheese vat, where they made cheddar.









We also separted some ricotta from the whey.









Preparing some halloumi to be packed.









Putting feta sticks into brine.









Adding a culture. Not sure if it is the yogurt or the amasi.

We used cows milk for that. But they also had some goats at the research farm:


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

how fun!!!! now I want cheese......mmmm

what kind of goats are they? they look like dairy crosses maybe with some boer?


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

We didn't use goats milk, and I think they even don't milk on that farm. 

I recall that I had spotted goats of our four milk races:
* Toggenburg
* Saanen
* BDE - Bunte Deutsche Edelziege
* British Alpine

And the meat ones
* Boer Goat
* Kalahari Reds
* Veld goats

Then of course crosses inbetween including some mohair.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

weird (that they don't milk the goats....goats milk makes wonderful mozzarella.


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

nchen7 said:


> weird (that they don't milk the goats....goats milk makes wonderful mozzarella.


It's a research farm, that is their small stock section. So they mainly do experiments with them on growth, fertility, etc.

I'd also loved to work with the goats milk, rather then the cows milk. But they didn't have that available.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

well, now you can experiment at home then!


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## GoatieGranny (Jul 26, 2013)

That was interesting! Thanks for sharing with us.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

What a wonderful opportunity! Can't wait until I actually have some milk to experiment with. Thank you for sharing that!


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## sarcios (Aug 29, 2014)

hello i have been experimenting with goat cheese for the past couple of weeks and am wondering how you make halloumi cheese......


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

sarcios said:


> hello i have been experimenting with goat cheese for the past couple of weeks and am wondering how you make halloumi cheese......


We did that as well. Recalling that one doesn't add a culture to halloumi cheese, just the rennet.


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## sarcios (Aug 29, 2014)

Thanks that makes sense


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