Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Family dairy


I'm recycling this post for Talk About Tuesday because today is yogurt day and I didn't want to take all new pictures. Read more about why we use raw dairy.

Lately, I've been experimenting with making some of our family's dairy products from raw milk; it's fresh from pasture-fed cows (although this time of year they're eating hay) that have not been given hormones or antibiotics.

Behold, the butter:


Yogurt is very easy to make, if you follow the directions (ahem). I borrowed my aunt's yogurt maker and used a sweet culture from our local health foods store, but you can just use a couple tbsp of plain yogurt for culturing. Basically, you heat the milk to 110 (or 180 if using pasteurized, then let cool to 116) and add in the culture. Afterwards you put it in your yogurt maker or a covered container and keep it around 95-100 degrees for 8-12 hours. Stick it in the fridge as soon as it has set; let cool. Add fruit or a little sweetener if it's too tart for your liking, and enjoy.

17 comments:

John-Michael said...

Not only sounds like fun to do (in addition to the fun I'm having with the music [grin], but your photos have a commercial "selling the yogurt" quality (OH WOW ... Mama Cass!! TOOOO COOL!!!!)

Anonymous said...

I grew up on raw milk and it's something I miss. Your yogurt looks delicious!

John-Michael said...

ooops .... NOT Mama Cass???

Mrs. O said...

jm - thx. sorry, no Mama Cass on this playlist

cw - thx, you can get it at the health food store on 8th north (it is crazy expensive though)

Anonymous said...

i grew up on raw milk too. my brother milked 30 cows every morning and night. we use to drin gallons of the stuff. i'll have to share a recipe with cream and flour. we called it maori porridge and only had it when we were out of porridge. i liked it better than normal porridge but i guess my mother knew it was fattening. love the recipes. and the pics! i'll have to get the book you mentioned. are these recipes from the same book?

b. said...

Corr, you are amazing!!
My bro and sis inlaw have a cow that they milk.....maybe I'll get some from them and try something new, you're inspiring!

Mrs. O said...

athena - yes please on the recipe for maori porridge. The recipe is in the cheese making book. They suggest adding a tbsp of gelatin to thicken it (strawberry jello would probably add a nice flavor)

b - lucky! the yogurt was super simple to make. If their cow is pasture-fed, you ought to get a lovely yellow color to your butter (once spring is here, that is).

Jan said...

I know nothing about raw milk or making yogurt but I'm glad the music is back. We discovered Regina Spektor several months ago after hearing one of her songs on a photographers web site. We spent hours on itunes on more than one evening trying to figure out who sang the song. We finally ended up contacting the photographer. We ended up downloading several of her songs. Some of them have some pretty funny lyrics.

Mrs. O said...

jan - I just added "little boxes" for you, it's one of her funny lyrics songs.

Anonymous said...

thanks! have you tried making non-diary milk? milk made from grains? what do you think of goats' milk and soy milk?

Mrs. O said...

Until recently our family has been drinking organic soy milk (unless it says made from organic soybeans, you can be pretty sure that the soybeans are GMO - genetically modified organisms). But I have been reading up on soy and phytoestrogens and the potential cancer and alzheimer's risks.
I'm a researcher at heart, so I'll continue reading up on this until I feel I have enough info to make a decision.

One of my daughters drinks rice milk and loves it. But the rest of us are probably making the switch to raw organic dairy (no extra hormones for my girls - I wonder if it's why so many girls are hitting puberty at such young ages).

Anonymous said...
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Lara said...

Yum! How do you find raw organic dairy products? How much do you pay for it? We could keep our own cow but we don't want to milk it!

Actually I just looked up how many gallons of milk one cow produces and the kids could have a nice little business if they wanted to milk one twice a day!

Mrs. O said...

lazy - We get it through Real Foods from Redmond Farms and it's about 6.50 a gallon. You could have a nice little business, indeed.

Anonymous said...

How I miss our raw milk. We use to get it in VA, but I haven't found a good source here in MD. My mouth is watering looking at the pictures.

Unknown said...

I've always wanted to try and make my own yogurt. :) It looks delish.

Am'n2Deep said...

My fave is almond milk, but it's such a pain. We were using soy, but I also have wanted to research the rumors I've heard. We've gotten lazy, and have just been drinking store bought milk lately. You just inspired me to get back to the raw stuff.