The Goat Creamery Internship

Clad in my purposely-purchased white pants, I was given a wet rag and asked to clean the Camembert cart. It was the second day of my much anticipated creamery internship, and I was glad to help out in all aspects of cheese-making – including the hygiene and sanitization parts. Although I had had an interview and discussed the terms of the internship with the owner, I was to be primarily working with two very amiable ladies in the creamery as the owner principally tends to the goats.

I adjusted my elastic-fitted cap and set out to thoroughly clean the cart. One of the ladies popped her head back in the room and exclaimed, “not so much water!” She apparently did not want any water to get on the tiled, appropriately sloped and drained floor. I then hitched up my unfortunately-loose, white pants and attempted to sop up the excess water. Her head popped in the room again: “not with that rag!”

While being the masters of direction-without-instruction, these ladies became the chosen guides for my goat cheese internship!

I was extremely fortunate to have landed this internship north of Erfurt. I had been searching for a cheese internship since I moved to Germany in January 2017, but began seriously contacting creameries in early 2018. Having flirted with working in the Alps for the summer and then having those doors shut on me, I was relieved to find a goat farmstead creamery willing to let me join them for three weeks.

Given the late arrangement, I unfortunately was not able to dedicate my entire summer to the internship. I had already agreed to participate in an opera, and rehearsals began at the end of July. Plus, I was actively pursuing further education as a baker; not interning at a bakery seemed to be a bad idea. Three weeks was all I could spare. Furthermore, having to rent a house in the area also pushed me to limit the length of the internship. So, I took a three week vacation from my unpaid baker internship in order to head to my unpaid cheeser* internship. (*Similar to English, the German language calls someone who bakes, a baker; in German, one who makes cheese is a “cheeser”.)

I had previously not been a fan of goat-milk cheese as it always tasted a bit too ‘goaty’ to me. I was surprised to learn that there is a solution to that: don’t let the ladies see the males. The does will produce musk when they are hanging out with bucks. This musk will impact the flavor of the milk and give the resulting cheese a ‘goaty’ flavor. This farmstead keeps the bucks out of sight of the does – the cheese is simply delicious. Fascinating.

The internship itself provided a great opportunity to produce cheese in much larger quantities than I am used to. When at home, I typically use about 16 liters of milk in a stockpot in my kitchen. This creamery has two large vessels that each hold approximately 300 liters. Typically, we made batches of cheese using 250 liters, which was the production of an evening and morning milking during the summer months.

The quantities challenged my typical processing as I was no longer measuring small amounts of cultures and rennet; rather I was tasked with weighing culture amounts (contingent on culture strength and fluid amount) as well as measuring rennet needs (again based on fluid amount and approximate fat content). I have often read the theory of DCU (Danisco Culture inoculant) and how one is supposed to use a scale rather than a measuring spoon, but putting this concept into practice was oddly eye-opening.

The two ladies often clarified the steps in the process, but their explanations often fell short to define why we were doing what we were doing. I limited the number of times I provided the reasons for a step in our process – I did not want to come across as obnoxious. If nothing else, the internship helped me realize that I know my cheese processing; I am already a cheeser.

Each day we made a single variety of cheese from yogurt to feta to quark (fromage blanc) to Camembert to Gouda. Each had its own process, and each demanded documentation (providing great insight for the app that I am attempting to build and design). The challenge during the internship did not end up being the cheese, but rather managing my coworkers.

I did quickly learn to ask for very specific, step-by-step instructions when given an assignment – too often I would be met with a passive-aggressive, “so that’s how you would do it…”. Week 2 brought some cattiness that appeared to have been suppressed for my first week. My chosen course was to keep them distracted from one another: We sang. We sang whatever popped onto the radio; most of the songs were in English, but we got through the day and its tasks with music. I did try to get them to dance, but that proved too much.

While applying cream wax to aging wheels in the cellar, I learned that the locals were concerned about a foreigner interning at the creamery. There was talk in a nearby town, where one of the ladies lived, that I was possibly there to steal their secrets. This woman was warned about being too open about their processes. I calmly explained that that was exactly why I was there; in fact, that is the point of any internship – I was there to learn.

During my three weeks, I had two major high points. The first happened my first Friday. Typically the two ladies have that day off, as such the owner takes over cheese-making for the day. During our initial discussions, I had explained how cheddar is an important cheese where I come from; in fact, I make a lot of it in my apartment. She wanted to learn how to make cheddar.

So, we worked with the supplies available. She did not have the right forms or a cheese press, but we made due with what we had. With a bit of ingenuity, we cheddared the curd, salted, and pressed 250 liters of goat milk into cheddar cheese. Three of the wheels were waxed, similar to the Goudas. One of the wheels I washed with a dark beer inoculated with blue cheese mold.

On the third Friday, we made cheddar again. This time we inoculated the milk with blue cheese mold. I have since been told that the cracks and crevices we left were not getting enough oxygen for the mold to take hold. For additional flavor, we may have needed to punch holes through the wheels.

The second high point was the second Friday (my eleventh day of the internship) where no one was available to make cheese from the collected milk. I was given the opportunity to use all of their equipment and 250 liters of milk to make Gouda on my own. I pasteurized the milk, inoculated it, coagulated the curd, cut the curd, washed the curd and filled the forms. This was a true test, and I believe I passed.

As this was the 25th time that Gouda was made in 2018, my cheese was labeled 25. If you happen by Greußen and stop by the goat farm, be sure to ask how #25 is doing! It has all the makings of a fantastic cheese.

To round out my education, I did ask to assist in milking one time in order to fully appreciate the complete cycle. I was granted the opportunity, but I honestly did not help all that much. I noted how the process differed from home. I had spent some of my childhood helping milk cows at my grandparents. It appeared that milking goats was much better for your knees: The platform was raised. Additionally, she had a “French” setup, which put the goats heads toward the milker rather than needing to dodge manure. The ladies happily munched some corn and grains while they lent their milk. I took pictures.

At the end of my cheeser internship, we had a very nice going away party where everything cheese was enjoyed. There was goat cheese waffles as well as goat bratwursts (quite tasty). Of course we broke out the ukulele and sang together one last time. As the night grew late, we made a final stop by the aging cellar to say goodbye to the goat cheddar and #25.