# Pasteurise or not??



## modeuk

Hi I'm new to cheese making and have a question about pasteurising. I drink my goats milk raw and will never change that but for making cheese mainly chevre, almost everywhere says to pasteurise first because of possible trouble with pathogens and other nasties. Why is it more dangerous to make cheese from unpasteurised milk than it is to just drink unpasteurised milk? Any thoughts?


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## mountaingoats12

Apparently the bacteria in raw milk interferes with the "cheese bacteria"...my friend makes chevre with raw milk and it always turns out fine, so I don't know how important it is to pasteurize...


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## modeuk

Ok thanks.


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## hsmomof4

Additionally, when you drink raw milk, you are cooling it quickly and storing it in the fridge. When you make cheese, however, you are letting it stay at a lovely temperature for bacterial growth for a considerable time. Basically, if you are using your own milk and you know the health of your animals and that your milk handling procedures are good, then it's one of those chances that many people are willing to take. But it's actually against federal law to sell fresh cheese made from raw milk (you can use raw milk for aged cheeses...the minimum aging time for raw milk aged cheeses is 60 days.) You can get some pretty nasty food poisoning from contaminated fresh cheeses (listeria, for example).


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## Kepi

I've pasteurised and I've made cheese with un-pasteurised milk, I can't say that I've not noticed any difference in the results. I am leaving some cheese to age to see if it has an effect on taste later.

These days I don't pasteurise, quite a few people have asked if I do, and when I say no their next question is can they buy, so there does seem to be a following for unpasteurised milk and cheese.


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## ConnieM

I make chevre and cream cheese from raw milk from my goats 2-3 times a week. I have never had any problem with it.


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## SolsticeSun

I make all of my cheeses raw. Now yogurt I pasteurize so it comes out thicker


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## Kepi

SolsticeSun said:


> I make all of my cheeses raw. Now yogurt I pasteurize so it comes out thicker


I hang my yoghurt overnight, result = thick and creamy


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