Milk flavor

[cmonkey]

Okay if fresh goat milk tastes like the yogurt I had today, I may just get wethers. It was like super soft chevre with blueberries. Did I just get a weird tub, or is that what it's like? 'Cause, EW! I keep reading you can fool people into thinking it's cow's milk, but I'm starting to have my doubts...

[pookshollow]

If you're wanting goat's milk, you might want to get does rather than wethers. Wethers are castrated males.

Why would anyone want to fool you into thinking it's cows' milk, I wonder? The couple of weeks we had to buy store milk, the coffee tasted horrible, and the cereal tasted funny too.

I keep meaning to try making yogourt - haven't got there yet, but my cheese is good!

[cmonkey]

Yeah, I know, but if milk tastes like that, I don't WANT the stuff... lol

I don't want to fool anyone, I just don't want milk that tastes like chevre.

[AnnaS]

I'm drawing a blank on the exact mechanism, but as goat milk ages, some of the lactose breaks down into caprose which gives goat cheese its distinctive flavor. This happens regardless of pastuerization or handling.

Fresh goat milk from correctly fed goats tastes much richer and sweeter than cow milk. Cheese made from fresh goat milk has NO goaty flavor- my fresh vinegar cheese has no flavor at all! Fresh yoghurt has a different texture but tastes like store bought yoghurt. Milk that has aged three or four days has a goaty taste.

Commercial goat milk processors usually pick up from farms once a week. The milk has plenty of time to generate caprose- some milk in each load will be 7 days old.

I can't think of any food where there is such a wide difference between the fresh, "homemade" product and the commerical product.

[Tabitha]

I think I know what you mean. I was raised on goatsmilk and hated it. It had a real strong taste and in coffee it was just awful. so when I did not have to anymore I just stayed away from it. Until two summers ago when we met an old codger who offered us goatmilk, I politely declined, but he pressed it on me, so I thought, well, to humor him I can force it down. wow, it was not what I was used to. I tasted neutral I would say. after that we got several quarts from him and made yoghurt, put it in coffee. My husband who did not know beans about goats was downright enamored. what can I say, I am milking a goat now morning and night. OUr daughter, who has digestive problems was really pleased with it, so when she went back to Salzburg she got goat milk from an organic farmer. she said now she understood why I hated goatmilk because it tasted awful and she could not drink it. I have no idea why some of the milk has that strong taste, if it is the kind of goat or if it has to do with the feed or how the animal is kept. Our goats at home were kept in close quarters, mine have acres to roam on, maybe that has something to do with it. I mean, the milk can taste like a goats body odor.

[6e]

That statement about "correctly fed goats" is the key! Our milk tastes yucky and I'm convinced it's because of the ragweed that our pasture is loaded with. We've never been able to straighten it out, so.....all our milk goes to the pigs. It's a real waste. The only reason we keep the goats around is in case we have orphaned lambs next spring.

[valhalladad]

I raised Alpine goats for 18 years and only had one goat that sometime gave a off tasting milk. It really depends a lot on what the goat eats and also to some extent on the breed. Nubians have a higher butter fat and toggs I have been told have a stonger taste. It sound like you should have the goat checked and look at what they are eating. My goats got a custom feed mixture I had prepared at a local mills and free choice grass hay. Also my pasture was reduced to just grass after a couple of years of the goats brousing. The bottom line is the milk comes from what they eat and their health. You can only get out what you put in.

[boren]

Originally Posted by cmonkey

Okay if fresh goat milk tastes like the yogurt I had today, I may just get wethers. It was like super soft chevre with blueberries. Did I just get a weird tub, or is that what it's like? 'Cause, EW! I keep reading you can fool people into thinking it's cow's milk, but I'm starting to have my doubts...

Huh? You're comparing the taste of yogurt to the taste of milk? Ok, so you went to the store and bought "goat yogurt" and didn't like the taste? I'm not sure anyone likes goat milk from the store, it's nasty stuff. I would also say that about a lot of chevre. If you don't know what fresh milk tastes like I would suggest finding some to try.

I would argue that proper cooling of milk is one of the most important parts of milking.

Cheers,

-Andrew

[Freeholder]

You are right -- up to a point! My milk is good in the fridge for a week, before it starts developing a flavor.

Some of the factors that can affect the flavor of goat milk have been mentioned, but one hasn't and that is the cleanliness of the equipment. That can have a major influence on milk flavor.

I've never had store bought goat milk, but up until I got Nubians a few years ago, most of our goat milk had a slight flavor -- enough that my daughters wanted chocolate in it! Then when we moved here, and I got Kinders, I found out what really GOOD milk tastes like! I won't go back to store-bought cow milk for anything, nor would I go to a straight dairy-breed goat! (The Boer cross doe I had gave milk just as good as the Kinders, by the way -- I think the high butterfat has a GREAT deal to do with the good flavor.)

Kathleen

Originally Posted by AnnaS

I'm drawing a blank on the exact mechanism, but as goat milk ages, some of the lactose breaks down into caprose which gives goat cheese its distinctive flavor. This happens regardless of pastuerization or handling.

Fresh goat milk from correctly fed goats tastes much richer and sweeter than cow milk. Cheese made from fresh goat milk has NO goaty flavor- my fresh vinegar cheese has no flavor at all! Fresh yoghurt has a different texture but tastes like store bought yoghurt. Milk that has aged three or four days has a goaty taste.

Commercial goat milk processors usually pick up from farms once a week. The milk has plenty of time to generate caprose- some milk in each load will be 7 days old.

I can't think of any food where there is such a wide difference between the fresh, "homemade" product and the commerical product.