When it comes to taste?
I've seen some pretty expensive cheeses lately that have my curiosity piqued, but really, would there be much difference taste-wise between a cow's milk mozzarella and a buffalo milk mozzarella or a goat's milk mozzarella?

Hi Lee Anne. My answer to your question is "no".

I have a very keen interest in cheeses. Love cheese. At 60 years of age I developed a severe allergy to anything to do with cow's milk. Severe rash, hives, swelling, breathing, itching.

Thanks to a gal working in the cheese department at Whole Foods I've discovered I'm not allergic to sheep milk, cheese. The enzymes in cow, sheep and goat are recognized as different in my body. So far I've discovered I don't have a reaction to ewe/sheep cheese Roquefort or Manchego. I've discovered there are lots of cheeses made with ewe milk and am happy to share this site. I haven't tried a mozzarella but if I can find some I will.

http://www.mozzco.com/awardsy....

Lee Anne, not even all cow's milk is equal in taste. We eat a lot of New York State cheddar cheese, both sharp and extra sharp, and like it a lot, but got some cheddar made in New Mexico as a gift and really can't stand the flavor. We'll see how the dogs like it. The biggest differences in flavor have to do with the diet the cow/sheep/goat/buffalo is on and the pasteurization process, the culture used to make the cheese, and aging. I can't really speak to milk from animals other than cows, but Susie makes some good points asbout allergies.

Our milk tester used to milk goats and he gave all his farmer clients some crackers and goat cheese one year for a Christmas gift. "Fromage du chevre" is NOT a cheese I'd go and actually spend money on. Crackers were tasty, tho. LOL (that is just French for goat cheese)

Does goat cheese taste like goats smell?

Oh, porkpal, there's a question I didn't need stuck in my head overnight!

Kinda.

I've made cheese from goats milk and it didn't taste goaty to me, even though the milk was quite goaty. It seemed the goatiness was all in the whey.

I used to like cheese from goat milk. Though because of my auto-immune allergy to cow milk I eat only sheep cheese. One day will try goat cheese again but I have to be ready to suffer in case I'm allergic to it also.

About the only cheese I really don't appreciate is "Tillamook"... whatever that is.

We used to keep and milk goats. We would drink the milk raw and make butter and cheese. I really dislike the smell of goats, but I never found their milk products to be objectionable in any way.

If the doe is milked into those half moon pails so that the milk stays spotlessly clean, and then it is properly strained and cooled quickly, I think it's as mild and delicious as cow's milk.

A former neighbor of ours used to make the best soft cheeses from his goat milk.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I kind of miss our goat.

Hm, well, I found it "goaty". Sorry to you goat cheese/milk fans.

Best cheeses I have EVER had, bar none, was when I was in France. My sis lives there. When we visited her 3 years ago, of course every night after supper there was the cheese course. I am proud to say I tried some of every kind she set in front of us. Even the one perpetrated to have little worms in the outside of the rind.

Worms? Were they somehow functional?

Yes, I guess so, but some things it is best to not know a whole lot about. Suffice to say, you do not EAT the rind................

I seriously raised registered Nubian dairy goats in the 80's - 90's.
The Nubian's milk is higher butterfat and better tasting than the Swiss breeds.
As for stinking, the does do not stink, its the bucks that have the strong
musk smell during the breeding season. During the off season its not quite as bad.
I've had raw cows milk that tasted "cowy" so its not just a goat thing.
We currently have a cow share and the milk is superb even though its from a Grade B dairy.
I think flavor of the milk depends on the stage of lactation and how the animal
is milked and how the milk is processed aferwords.
I was meticulous about clean udders, wasting the first few streams of milk
which is highest in bacteria,
performing mastitis tests regularly and using bleach cleaned stainless steel equipment...
and my milk was filtered and plunged into ice water to cool quickly.
Most people could not tell the difference between my goats milk and the milk they drank.
So this topic is very subjective depending on the many variations that can occur.
A side note on the wonders of goats milk.
Due to the fat globuals being smaller and naturally dispersed throughout the milk
people who are allergic to cows milk can often drink goats milk.
It's an ideal food for growing youngsters and the elderly
and much better for you than soy which has plant estrogens and is why
it is only suppose to be consumed no more than 3 times a week.

The thing that affects flavors in milk for cows (and I can't imagine goats would be any different since they eat) is what the beast is fed. Flavors from the feeds are quickly assmiliated into the milk. I could not STAND the smell OR the taste of cows' milk if my dad put the cows on alfalfa pasture. Gag!!! It was hideous. (not to mention the cows could bloat on lush alfalfa if not closely monitored).

All I know re: processing affecting the taste is that I don't drink processed milk. Don't like the taste, if you can even call it that. Give me raw any day of the week.

Good point...I forgot about the food factor.
Pasturized milk is BAD!
Commerical organic milk is better but still not as good as raw.

If your animals grazed wild onions, you'd remember the food factor pretty quickly!

We didn't have any of those. The alfalfa was bad enough.

when in Hawaii we went to the Surfing Goat Dairy and has a wonderful nach of all kinds of goat cheese mixed with different herbs and vegies. We brought six bottles home with us frozen. I love goat cheese in my cooking and on my salads also.

does rice milk have those estrogens in it also? we drink it every day with our cereal.

Mary Stella. I use Almond Milk on my cereal and Coconut milk in coffee. I gave up soy products other than occasional soy yogurt and Tofutti (sour cream alternative) because of the estrogen. If you're avoiding soy you need to check out product contents in prepared foods. It's everywhere.

I've wondered if the reason I may have developed an auto-immune allergy to cow milk is because it's in so many products now. Cookies, all but one Starbucks pastries, doughnuts, pancakes, Doritos, creamed foods (obviously), candy, chocolate (I can eat See's DARK chocolate, not Milk Chocolate and not the cream fillings). It's added to so much food. I sub. coconut milk ice cream (yum). Now I eat almost no prepared foods. Just too risky. My doc says I'm probably eating a more healthy diet, though I never went overboard on any of the foods I just mentioned. It's just me.