Raw Dairy Roundup (and More)
After reading Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, and upon the advice of our family friend and chiropractor, Dr. Chad Hood, I have begun to incorporate raw dairy (unpasteurized milk straight from the cow or goat) into our diet. This is quite a change for us, as we gave up drinking regular pasteurized cow’s milk a few years ago, when our son Kellen’s severe dairy allergy first appeared. At that point, we all gradually made the shift to using rice milk in our breakfast cereal, and carefully consumed other dairy products (cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream) so as not to cross-contaminate what Kellen ate or came into contact with. Because I knew what could happen to Kellen if he ingested or even touched a small amount of milk (immediate hives, wheezing, eyes swelling shut, runny nose), I chose to err on the side of caution and avoid buying the ubiquitous gallon from the grocery store each week.
Now there IS cow’s milk in our refrigerator, but it doesn’t come from the grocery store. Instead, I pick it up (two gallons every other week) at a neighborhood drop-off point served by a local dairy that provides raw, organic milk to its customers. Raw milk advocates tout the benefits of unpasteurized milk (obtained, of course, from a scrupulously clean and careful dairy), including the presence of healthy bacteria that play an important role in digestion and nutrient absorption. (We tried raw goat’s milk, too, which tasted surprisingly the same as cow’s milk, but it was a more complicated process to purchase it and a farther distance to travel to pick it up.) We’ve been buying the raw milk for a couple months now and are getting used to having it in our diet, but I’ve been trying to develop a system for efficiently and economically—at $10 a gallon, we handle it like liquid gold!—incorporating it in different ways for the members of our family who can have it. (I had some hope, as I was researching the idea, that Kellen might be able to tolerate raw dairy, but he still exhibited some symptoms after trying both the goat and cow varieties. Our next test will be to culture some of the milk into yogurt or cultured butter to see whether that process makes the milk’s proteins any less volatile for him.)
So I picked up two gallons of milk last week, and here’s what I’ve done with this latest batch so far:
• Using a tip I found on an online forum, I poured one gallon of milk into a jar with a wide opening at the top and a spigot at the bottom—such as you might use here in Arizona to steep and then serve a batch of sun tea. I allowed the milk to rest in the refrigerator in the jar for about 24 hours so that the cream would rise to the top. Then, using the spigot at the bottom of the jar, I released some of the milk into another container, which gradually moved the inch or so of cream down to a point where I could scoop most of it out from the top with a ladle. I saved the cream in the refrigerator and repeated the process with the second gallon (I only bought one jar to try it out, but it worked so well, I think I’ll buy another one so that I don’t have to wait as long to get all the cream separated). I got about 2 cups of cream total (1 cup from each gallon), leaving a little behind so that the leftover milk would still have some in it. From the cream, I made butter (1/2 cup) and buttermilk (1 1/2 cups) using my Vita-Mix blender. It was a really easy process, and the results tasted great. Of course, I do wish the butter yield had been higher! We have used some of the butter on bread and to cook eggs, and I plan to use the buttermilk this week to add to the soaking liquid of our breakfast oatmeal and maybe to bake something with the sprouted spelt flour I’ve got on hand. Any suggestions?
• I used a gallon of the remaining milk to make mozzarella cheese following the recipes and methods outlined in Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (click here) and the online directions provided by the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (click here). Because I had removed much of the cream from the milk, the resulting cheese was a bit drier than when I made it previously with whole milk. And I should have added more salt toward the end of the process. But I think it will work just fine shredded or sliced (it should yield about 2 cups) on top of homemade pizza, which will be our dinner later this week.
I’m hoping to make yogurt with some of the remaining milk using piima or viili cultures I purchased from Cultures for Health a few weeks ago. The rest I guess we will drink or use in smoothies or something.
So I’m a little closer to establishing a regular routine of processing the raw dairy we purchase. I think it will take me a little while to get a system operating smoothly. And at some point, if we can fit it into the food budget, I will probably need to increase the quantity that we buy, as we still find ourselves occasionally needing to purchase regular butter, cheddar cheese and sour cream from the grocery store.
Other projects in the kitchen this week included making juice pops from last week’s leftover Cherry Juice, and ice cream treats from Wardeh Harmon’s recipe for Dark Chocolate Ice Cream—Non-Dairy, Naturally Sweetened—both enjoyed by my naturally sweet daughter, Kennah.
This post is part of the Tuesday Twister blog carnival hosted by www.gnowfglins.com. To link to today’s Tuesday Twister on that site, click here.
20 comments
Sonya – I’m so jealous! Butter! And milk where the cream rises to the top! You’re doing marvelous things with your raw milk. I bought a cream separator recently so I can get the cream out of my goat’s milk, but we haven’t installed it yet. It has to be mounted on a counter. I had forgotten that the Kingsolver book had a recipe for mozarella… I’m going to look that up! Thanks for participating in the Tuesday Twister. I loved reading about your week.
P.S. I concur – Kennah is naturally sweet!
Wardeh—I had to use both the recipe from Kingsolver’s book (and Web site) and the one from the New England Cheese Making Supply site together, because the one from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle leaves out the step where you cut the curd (shown clearly on the other site), which I neglected to do the first time I made the cheese. (Also, I stirred it too much, the first time, which messed up the curd formation.) But Kingsolver’s site had the directions for using liquid rennet (which I used) instead of tablet form. I plan to combine both recipes and sets of instructions onto one piece of paper soon, so that I don’t have to keep flipping back and forth between them as I work!
—Sonya
I’ll have to find some raw milk. I have never made cheese.
I have seen those push-up freezer pop containers. Do you find they are too big for your daughter? I was thinking of purchasing a set for my girls.
Hi, Michelle! It was easier than I thought it would be to find raw milk in my area. I hope you have similar success! Making the mozzarella was easy and fun. I like the push-up freezer pop containers a lot (we don’t do cones because of my older son’s wheat allergy). They didn’t seem to be too big for my daughter, who is 3. My younger son (21 months) had one, too, and while he made kind of a mess with it, he was able to use it pretty well. He certainly enjoyed it! The only design flaw I’ve noticed with the ones I have is that it would be nice if there was something that stuck into the ice cream or juice pop from the top of the push up plunger. Because it’s just flat there, if the kids push the plunger all the way up, the contents (if they are melted enough) can slide off.
—Sonya
Great job using your raw milk! We have a cow share for one gallon a week. My crew drinks it so fast I never have any to spare! I am currently ’suggesting’ to hubby that we look at adding another share so we have 2 gallons a week. MMMMM. I’m giddy just thinking about that much milk! Now how to figure out a way to massage the budget to allow the extra share…
Looks and sounds great! You have done so much with your raw milk.
Thank you, Sonya. I think I’ll look for some. I am tired of using dixie cups. LOL It would make sense to have something that stuck in the ice cream.
Hi Sonya,
Where did you get those push up forms from? I haven’t seen them yet. We stopped buying anything at the grocers and I’m thinking the kids would feel more like they were eating something illegal since they are just like the scooby doo pops we used to get at the zoo occasionally. Enjoy your cheesemaking! I posted my mozzarella directions here: http://sustainableeats.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/finally-mozzarella-that-made-my-husband-say-mmmmmm/. I”ve done the microwave version and it was awful, then I tried the long version from New Engl cheese and that was too complicated. I finally took a class and got this recipe. The pH is hard to get just right and I still struggle with it but it’s always fun to make!
My husband is allergic to milk and even the raw milk affects him, like your son. Because of this, I haven’t been drinking the raw milk lately because I can’t drink a half gallon by myself. I still have a couple half gallons in our freezer! But it’s health benefits are so great, I’d like to give it another try with my son who has also reacted strongly to regular cow’s milk. I also don’t think he likes the milk very much so it was hard for me to tell if he is okay with the raw milk because he wouldn’t really drink it!
Thanks so much for the inspiration. Your cheese and butter make my mouth water!
Sarah
Hi, Sarah! Yes, I am so sad that my son is not able to join us in having raw milk. What do you do instead? We try to avoid soy after reading Nourishing Traditions, but it’s hard to get away from it. My son drinks mostly rice milk. Glad you got some inspiration!
—Sonya
Hi, Annette! I bought the push-up forms last week at Bed, Bath & Beyond—I think the price was $4.99 for four. Thanks for the link to your mozzarella recipe! I will take a look at it. I’ve seen your site, but need to explore it some more.
—Sonya
Hi, Tiffany! I stopped by your site yesterday after the Tuesday Twister. Good stuff! I need to spend some more time there.
—Sonya
Hi, Millie! Yes, the expense for the raw milk is a topic that we definitely have had to talk through at our house, too. Luckily, we don’t actually drink too much of it, and we don’t each the traditional store-bought dried cereals at breakfast that you would normally have with milk, either. That saves me enough to do some other things, but it would be nice to have more!
—Sonya
Sonya~ I just wanted to share that for our little ones- after they were done nursing, I would combine coconut milk with rice milk- the coconut gave us the added fat and nutrients we were looking for- the kids loved it! I use in in our green smoothies too. I just poured the last can of it into a glass jar- so I cannot double check the ingredients- and see if it is produced with allergy foods. I get it at Trader Joe’s and I know it can be found at asain markets as well-
Thank you, Tawnya! You’re the sweetest! And we love coconut milk, too, although I never thought about combining it with rice milk to round it out a bit. We usually use it to make ice cream or yogurt, but I like your suggestion, too!
—Sonya
Hi! The raw milk is $12.99 at New Life in Tucson. Just want you to know you’re getting a good price. xo
Thanks, Rachel! It is always good to know when you’re getting a good deal!
Love, Sonya
You may want to save your hm butter for non-heat purposes only (like on bread, but not eggs) so you preserve the “raw” enzymes. Since you get so little, might as well get everything out of it! It’s easy to make cultured butter, too. I have directions at my site under recipes, if you’re interested. Good luck with the raw milk!
Hi, Katie! That’s an excellent suggestion, and we’ll absolutely do that in the future. I think I just got a little excited with my “first” butter and wanted to use it for everything. Of course, it was gone pretty quickly!
I DO want to try cultured butter, and I will check out the directions on your site for sure.
—Sonya
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