Amazing What a Gallon of Milk Can Yield

[lady_karelia]

I felt a bit down after taking Dorkboy to the airport. I mean, two weeks without him, then a w/end with him, then another two weeks without, and on and on it'll go... *sighs*

So, anyhow, the best way to distract me was to make some cheese. Fresh cultures arrived this week, and I bought a gallon of the liquid yesterday at the grocery store. Because, you know, people around TN haven't heard of cows or sheep or goats producing milk, oh no. They all know it comes from the grocery store.

The first task was to make a flavourful feta cheese, which now, about 10 hours later, is dripping whey at the rate of one drop every 20 minutes. It looks promising, even though it was one hell of a job to get the stuff to form curds. Sheesh. I can haz raw milk? Please? Pretty please?

Next task was to save the whey to make ricotta. I now have a small bowl of ricotta in my fridge, ready to be used for, oh, maybe a one-person meal of spinach and ricotta lassagne. Which is okay, me being the only one who eats it.

Next, I used the left-over whey to cook pasta in. It tasted fabulous.

I'm tempted to—no scrap that, I know I will—buy some non-homogenized milk. Last time, a couple of months ago, that was around 2.99 a pint. I dread to look at the price now. I think I'll just pick up a few pints and close my eyes when I get to the cash desk and hope I have enough $$ on me to pay for it. But I'll have good cheese! Yay!

Um, yeah, that's all. I should return to the writing of the project that must not be named. *snerk* In the meantime, feel free to ponder why on earth I love making my own cheese (from milk!) when I condemn about four out of five fanfics because they're cheesy. *snickers*

Comments

[persevero.livejournal.com]

This is one of those entries that sends me all over the Internet - first to read the entry on raw milk in Wikipedia - interesting (including the fact that there is such an entry). We can buy it (from TB- and brucellosis-tested herds) as 'green-top' milk here and it makes much better cottage cheese/paneer/yoghurt. Then, as I didn't realise one could make feta at home, to research commercially-available starter cultures. Can you buy raw sheep's or goats' milk? Perhaps they are under the Nanny State's radar (no pun intended, but a jolly appropriate one nevertheless).

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Some states allow the sale here, but ours doesn't. Which sux. I don't want someone with no clue tell me it's unhealthy. *snrk* I haven't found either ewes' or goats' milk for sale, but have started to ask around; hopefully someone will know of someone...

Feta is quite easy to make, and it's great fun to watch it from turning from milk into a proper cheese. :)