dairy queen

milk and cream simmering

last week i decided to try my hand at making two types of dairy products: cream cheese and yogurt.

draining the cream cheese

i did the cream cheese first. it was pretty easy with lots of passive time waiting for the whey to drain from the curds.

cream cheese!

after the 24hr draining time you peel off the cheesecloth and stir. so simple and easy!

it was so good that we had to get bagels the next morning. it was creamier and more prone to melting than commercial cream cheeses that i've had. we were enjoying it until yesterday morning when it started tasting a bit sour. the recipe i used said it should be good for 1-2 weeks, but this was only four days old. maybe i did something wrong?

yogurt activating in the crock pot

on sunday i made yogurt. i really like the cream top on the whole milk yogurt that Brown Cow makes and, after a bit of research, learned that all you need for cream top yogurt is milk that hasn't been homogenized. i had a half gallon of raw milk that i'd used part of for the cream cheese, so making cream top yogurt with the rest seemed meant to be! i used this recipe for vanilla yogurt, only i cut it in half, and i didn't do the straining part. none of us are big plain yogurt eaters. i know it's better not to eat all of that sugar, but plain yogurt topped with fruit just doesn't do it for me. at least this way i can control how much sugar goes in there. i also used a packet of gelatin to thicken it up. next time i'll add a little less gelatin, but more sugar and vanilla. 

it turned out beautifully! i love seeing all of these lovely little jars in the fridge. 

yummy!

mozzarella!

last sunday i tried my hand at cheese making for the first time. my mother-in-law was visiting. she hadn't been able to tolerate any dairy products for the last six years, until she tried some raw milk cheese and discovered it didn't cause her any trouble. her visit was just the excuse i needed to enter the world of raw milk. i've been curious about it, but worried that it would taste too different from what i was accustomed to. also, the laws in oregon mandate that raw milk must be purchased at the farm and nowhere else. i probably would have tried it sooner if i could have picked some up at the farmer's market instead of taking a 50 minute drive to the farm, but that's the way it is here and it was totally worth it. we all tried sips of the milk before we made the cheese. it was so good! it was what i was used to tasting, just a richer, yummier version. i fear i'll find myself making that drive again and again. 

i wish i had gotten some photos of the Kookoolan Farms farm store. it was stocked with all sorts of wonderful things and had a lovely wooden barn and toy animal set that gigi had fun playing with. we picked up one gallon of milk, a quart of kombucha, a dozen eggs, and rennet and citric acid for cheese making. 

mozzarella is surprisingly easy to make. i used the recipe from Home Dairy by Ashley English. in the recipe she says to watch the thermometer so you don't overheat your milk. she wasn't kidding. 88 degrees really isn't as warm as you think it's going to be. i didn't test it until it was already at 93 and then spent the next 30 minutes waiting for it to cool back down. i was so sure i'd already ruined it. 

after adding the citric acid and rennet it changes into curds really quickly. its amazing to watch it transform before your eyes. 

then the heating and kneading process begins. we passed the cheese around, each kneading it for a bit. here's my mom kneading away. it's quite a workout for your hands. 

eventually most of the watery whey has left the curd and you're left with a smooth ball of lovely cheese.

combine with home grown tomatoes for the best caprese ever! 

if you're interested in finding some raw milk in your area, click here. always research where your milk is coming from. while raw milk is full of beneficial microbes that pasteurized milk doesn't have, it also can have not-so-nice microbes too. make sure that your farm is crazy-diligent about cleanliness!