The only remaining ‘missing piece’ of my first cheesemaking experiment is appropriate milk. The stuff in the store is all pasteurized and homogenized. Now, you may ask yourself, “Why aren’t those good qualities?” Well, they are if you’re drinking it — pasteurization kills any nasty bacteria in the milk, and homogenization assures that the milkfat is suspended evenly throughout the liquid.

Those processes also diminish the qualities inherent in milk that are beneficial to cheesemaking. The pasteurization isn’t such a big deal — though gurus say that the best cheese is made from unpasteurized, raw milk. Homogenization, on the other hand, is detrimental, according to this article by Robert Carroll:

If you must purchase your milk from the store, attempt to find an unhomogenized brand. The process of homogenization breaks down milk’s butterfat, which prevents the cream from rising to the top, thereby rendering it useless for making hard cheeses (the homogenized fat globules are too small to produce a proper curd). Homogenized milk can be used, however, for making soft cheeses.

So, even though I’ll be making soft cheeses at first, I’m still after a supply of unhomogenized milk.

My first useful discovery was a group called Just Dairy. They’re a big bunch of Boston-area raw milk enthusiasts who take turns driving each week to buy pasture-fed raw milk from licensed dairies in rural Massachusetts. Before committing to the group, you can try out the raw milk; then you pay in advance for a month’s-worth of milk, which is purchased on your behalf each week by the assigned driver. Small weekly dues are also levied, for group improvement.

Cyndy Gray, who coordinates Just Dairy, tells me that there’s interest in starting a new Metro-West drive-sharing group, which I’ll likely join sooner or later.

In the mean time, I’d like to find pasteurized, unhomogenized milk. Wilson Farms of Lexington says their dairy suppliers don’t offer any, and Crescent Ridge Farm of Sharon also doesn’t sell it. I’ve been pointed toward Peaceful Meadows Farm of Whitman, MA. No word yet on their milk. Will update soon.

UPDATE 5/2/04: Called Peaceful Meadows this morning; they no longer sell unhomogenized milk. I guess I’ll follow up with Just Dairy folks.

You can add this one to your list of exciting Pesadik food (we served it on the last day of Pesach), but it’s really appropriate for any time of year. I am particularly fond of this dish, because it is made in advance and served cold — perfect for Shabbat and Yom Tov. It’s based on Emeril Lagasse’s Roasted Vegetable and Goat Cheese Terrine with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce.

Go ahead and grab that recipe. In fact, use it as-is if you’d like a great dairy appetizer. The changes I made were:

* use an EZ-Foil loaf pan, instead of a terrine
* eliminate goat cheese mixture (for pareve-ness)
* add roasted asparagus, which I laid down the length of the terrine, so that when sliced, you would see nice green circles.
* used jarred roasted peppers instead of roasting them myself
* used two heavy cans instead of the brick
* popped the compressed terrine into the freezer for 20 minutes before serving, for easier cutting with a very sharp knife
* no croutons on Passover

This recipe is a lot of fun to put together, and the bright colors and creative presentation really impress a holiday table. And now that we’re approaching the summer months, you might consider grilling your veggies rather than oven-roasting them.

For a decent pictorial overview of the terrine-making process, check out Jorj Morgan’s site.

This past Sunday, we were treated to a visit by one of Sarah’s classmates, who taught us her family’s recipes for scallion pancakes and egg rolls. Both were delicious and fun to make, and far better (not to mention less greasy) than their restaurant counterparts.

The scallion pancake is essentially a simplified version of a puff pastry dough — several thin layers of dough separated by layers of fat. In this case, the dough is merely flour and hot water, and the fat is vegetable oil. Add sliced scallions and salt, give it a quick pan-fry, and there you have it.

I have altered the recipe-as-taught to have exact measurements, plus this version introduces the option of using the food processor.SCALLION PANCAKES

* 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
* 1/2 C hot water
* 1 Tbsp. cold water
* 1/2 C scallions, sliced diagonally very thin
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus additional for pan-frying

1. Gradually add the hot water to the flour. Add the cold water and form a sticky ball. This may be done by hand, adding a few tablespoons of water at a time, or it may be done in the food processor. (While pulsing the flour, slowly pour in the water; it will look like coarse sand. Scoop out the mixture and press together into a ball.)
2. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Roll each piece out on a floured surface to 1/8″ thickness.
3. Brush dough with vegetable oil to coat, sprinkle with scallions and salt.
4. Like a jelly roll, roll each flattened, seasoned dough piece into a tight cylinder. Twist the cylinder around itself to make a coil, and tuck the outer end back into the pancake. Using your rolling pin, flatten the coil to 1/4″ thickness.
5. Heat a large, non-stick pan over medium-high heat and coat the pan liberally with vegetable oil. Cook one or two pancakes at a time until brown, flipping once.
6. Remove from pan when done. Serve immediately, cut into four pieces, or let cool and refridgerate/freeze — pancakes may be reheated in the oven until hot.

Cathy Potter at the Dairy Connection says their EZAL cultures (freeze-dried, direct-set by Rhodia) [photo] all have OU hekshers.

Unfortunately, their vegetarian rennet (Marzyme Supreme) is only certified in the 5-gallon container (they repackage into smaller vessels). At $63.00/gallon, I won’t be pursuing that quantity.

Just caught some “Iron Chef America” on Food Network… an egg battle between Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto. Puck won handily (his dishes best reflected the surprise ingredient and the tastes of the judges), but during the competition, Morimoto pulled out this delicious looking slab of fresh tuna. Instantly, I thought — I must have some tuna like that!

Problem is, as far as I know, we don’t have great, fully Kosher purveyors of fish in the Boston area, despite our proximity to the sea. The major supermarkets carry a limited selection of packaged, fileted Kosher fish from North Coast Seafoods; I’ve seen cod, sole, salmon, and haddock sporadically at both Stop & Shop and Shaw’s/Star.

The Butcherie maintains a small fresh fish case. Given everything else that’s going on around the butcher counter, and the fact I never see much quantity or variety in the fish, it feels like it isn’t a priority, so I’ve generally steered clear.

Naturally, my curiousity has gravitated toward the prominent fishmonger on Harvard Street, Wulf’s… which isn’t kosher. But it’s only fish, right? Not so fast. Here’s a quick overview of my nearby kashrut sources. From the Orthodox Union website:

Therefore, filleted or ground fish should not be purchased unless properly supervised, or the fillet has a skin tab with scales attached to the flesh. Furthermore, purchasing fish in a non-kosher fish store is problematic, even if the scales are intact, because the knives and tables are not kosher, and Rabbinic guidance should be sought.

From The Laws of Kashrus (Forst):

Purchasing fish from a non-kosher store: Since the matter is controversial, one should not purchase cut fish from a store that sells non-kosher fish, even though the fins and scales of the kosher fish are recognizable (skinless fish or fillets may, in fact, be non-kosher). Since the proprietor cannot be believed that the knife is used exclusively for kosher fish, we must be concerned that the knife may have had non-kosher residue. In the event that one has no alternative to purchasing cut fish from a non-kosher store, the fish should be thoroughly washed and the cut surfaces lightly scraped with a knife edge. If the store sells only kosher fish, one may purchase cut fish (if the scales are recognizable) although one has no assurance that the knife is kosher.

The 21-year-old How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household (Greenberg) suggests matters were more lenient in the past:

In all but very intensive Jewish neighborhoods, the fish store will sell both kosher and non-kosher fish. However, if there is a Jewish clientele, the fishman will keep two sets of knives for cutting and cleaning.

I’ll defer this matter to our rabbinical authority and report back.

If you must have the freshest fish and the greatest variety, buy a whole fish and avoid the knife issue entirely. The Gorton’s website, believe it or not, has some good guidelines on cleaning and deboning whole fish and tips for buying fresh fish that are applicable in any situation.

TeamKosher is currently accepting submissions for the 5764 KosherBlog Wish List, a compilation of products, services, and other innovations that we’d like to see made available to the kosher world. Submit as many wishes as you can conjure; we’ll compile them and select the most popular and most interesting as our official bellwethers of communal improvement — to be published in a few weeks. As the year goes by, we’ll report on any wish fulfillments we discover.

Send your submissions to submit@kosherblog.net.

Just spotted a Kosher cheese section at iGourmet.com — currently includes brie, boursin, swiss, and blue cheese. I’ve asked for more information about who certifies each product.

Perishable shipping costs (FedEx overnight) are consistent with other sites, starting at around $16 first pound.

[Using the link above to make an order helps support KosherBlog.]

UPDATE: Received details from iGourmet on hashgacha. Danablu certified by Bet Din of London, Frantal Swiss certified by Rabbi Schlessinger of Geneva, French Brie has been discontinued, and Barkanit (out of stock at the moment, should be back next week) is certified by the Israeli Rabbinate and the Rabbi of Gilboa Valley.

My mother gleaned this tip last Thanksgiving from a chef at a local function hall: For some great milchig mashed potatoes, add a healthy helping of Boursin, a soft cheese mixed with herbs. A complete recipe is available on the Boursin web site.

Boursin is certified by the OU and available in most supermarkets.

UPDATE: I’ve received some new information regarding Gourmet Food Store.

Sep Niakan, an owner of GFS, tells me that they’ve been experiencing some unforseen issues with importing cheeses from France, causing those items’ absence from the site. They’re working to quickly resolve that problem, but in the meantime, they’ve introduced kosher butter and cream, will be improving their supply of existing product lines, and are expanding into kosher chocolate within the next few months.

A big plus, though, is a reduction of their shipping costs to $16.25 for the first pound of perishable products, and $6.50 for non-perishables. Expect that in a few days.

We left off, before Pesach, with a laundry-list of cheesemaking ingredients which would require attention in regard to Kashrut. Since then, I’ve discovered that a large segment of the cheese additives available are manufactured under kosher supervision. Manufacturers include:

* Danisco (cultures)
* Rhodia (cultures, microbial rennet)
* Chr. Hansen (cultures, microbial rennet)
* DSM (microbial rennet)
* Imac (cultures)

What has been challenging is finding a retailer that sells these products in consumer-appropriate quantities, and does not repackage them into smaller containers without supervision.

Fortunately, I have found one online retailer based in Canada that sells Dansico products in their original manufacturer’s packaging: danlac.com. The website is rather confusing, but with some help from the fellow who runs it, I was able to identify the products I need for my first cheesemaking attempt: mesophilic starter culture and microbial rennet. He also provided me with the requisite kashrut documentation, just to be certain.

The special equipment I’ll need at first (dairy thermometer and butter muslin) I can get from New England Cheesemaking Supply.

So far, so good.

I’m willing to accept that Kosher beef costs more than non-Kosher beef, but it’s starting to get to me that brisket constantly hovers around $12/lb. For our family seder, we procured a delicious 10-pounder, but the price was no laughing matter.

Traditionally, Brisket has been among the cheapest of beef cuts given its need for slow cooking to make it tender. And, outside of your kosher butcher, it is still very cheap — between $2-$4/lb. for a non-Kosher slab from Stop & Shop.

It’s a bit old, but this Kosher Today article from 2001 seems to capture the unanimous verdict of the industry — supply is down, and despite increasing demand and expanded sales venues (more kosher steakhouses, major supermarket kosher sections), there’s little interest in the greater slaughterhouse community to include kosher slaughter.

Granted, there is a certain baseline that effects kosher and non-kosher processors alike — mad cow, etc., affect prices across the board. However, I don’t see how the industry (from ranch to retail) can use this explanation to fully defend prices that are 3-to-6 times as expensive as non-kosher products, in the case of our brisket.

When I see that Chabad of Iowa offers brisket at the sane price of $5.29/lb. through their community meat co-op (given their proximity/relationship to the Rubashkin factory), it makes me fiercely curious what the detailed breakdown of retail meat costs is.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to start a monthly kosher meat index, cataloging prices across the country and comparing them with their treyf counterparts?

Here’s a quick overview of online stores we’ve recently discovered that carry interesting gourmet kosher items. (Thanks to those of you who have sent in tips!) If you have experience with any of these vendors, please comment.

Gourmet Food Store
Gourmet Food Store carries a handful of interesting kosher imports like French foie gras, Scottish smoked salmon, and Canadian caviar. When it first opened, they had a wide selection of European kosher cheeses (French, Swiss, Italian, Danish), which seem to have since vanished. The overnight shipping for perishables is considerable — $24.00 for 1st pound — which is why I didn’t make an order even when they had more stock. Regardless, check them out, and keep an eye out for new Kosher products. Plus, by using the link above, you can support Kosher Blog with your order.

ChefShop.com
This Yahoo! Store has an entire section of Kosher gourmet products, ranging from asian and tex-mex sauces, to Passover desserts by François Payard, to specialty honeys.

KosherItalia.com
KosherItalia.com is a new source for Italian products, including cheese, olives, and pasta. The cheeses are pricey (everything $20/lb. and up), though not out of line with, say, the prices of Williams-Sonoma offerings. The second-day air shipping that’s required ($20, up to 5 lb.) may give you pause. The site doesn’t yet have online ordering (phone, fax, e-mail only). I think it’s quite promising, and would really stand out if it had a wider selection of products and a more professional design.

Before dinner last Saturday, I was talking with a couple of friends (you know you’re reading this) and the topic of kitchen safety came up. One of my friends mentioned that he had seen a report that said that the kitchen has gobs and gobs of bacteria and it’s a wonder why people aren’t getting sick all over the place. The three of us kind of laughed it off by saying that we are careful cooks and none of us had ever killed anyone yet (at least not through cooking), and that some level of bacterial exposure is useful for our immune systems. In reality, though, we should mention kitchen hygiene and food safety, so here goes.
We spend plenty of time talking about different foods and complements to those foods, but all of this is for naught if we end up killing our dinner guests. Tuesday’s New York Times (which always includes the coveted Science Times section) had a useful article meant to raise awareness of the effects of poor kitchen hygiene. The recommendations, which are called Fight Bac! and can also be found at the USDA, are as follows:1. CLEAN
Basically, wash your hands, utensils, counters, cookware, cutting boards, etc., when using them, especially between food items like raw meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and ready to eat items. Also wash fruits, vegetables, and especially melons and the like before cutting them to avoid contaminating the flesh from the skin.

2. SEPARATE
No, I’m not talking about fleishigs and milchigs. Avoid cross contamination between raw and ready to eat foods. This means not putting cooked food on platters or boards that have been used for raw foods, not using marinades that haven’t been boiled after holding raw foods, etc.

3. COOK
Please cook foods thoroughly. Most people do not use meat thermometers, although we pretty much all should have them. (Alas, I have one for most of the year, but have to wing it on Pesach.) It is important to cook food to the proper temperature.

4. CHILL
After cooking, you should store your leftovers (and not-made-yets) at the right temperature too. In general, it is recommended that your refrigerator be no warmer than 40 F (4 C) and the freezer should be no warmer than 0 F (-18 C). Keep foods either warm enough or cool enough, which means that warm foods should be chilled quickly for storage. Also, you should not defrost meats at room temperature — use the refrigerator or cold water.

I hope you find this helpful and are as successful as I have been at not killing people (at least with food).

(And in case you’re interested with where I got the title of this post: I was talking with a former college roommate of mine the other day about taking classes pass/fail (he’s in law school now and isn’t going to the class he’s taking pass/fail). I mentioned that some med schools (like perhaps this one) have pass/fail classes. His response was “That’s cool. No, wait, no it isn’t. Oh, well, I guess it is, as long as you don’t take ‘how not to kill people’ pass/fail.” Maybe you had to be there.)

A month before Pesach, Sarah and I picked up The New York Times Passover Cookbook at the Brookline Booksmith (clearance priced at $10, given its February 1999 publication date). Since we now “own” the Jewish holidays in our family, we had an opportunity to spice things up at the seder table — this book was a big help.

Many prominent chefs from the treyf world contribute Passover-sensitive recipes — i.e. Charlie Trotter’s carrot consomme, Paul Prudhomme’s veal roast, Wolfgang Puck’s nouveau gefilte fish. While many of the chef-inspired offerings are complicated, they resoundly put to rest complaints that there’s nothing “good” to eat on Pesach.

A big hit among our family and friends was the “Margarten Family’s Apple Kugel”: sliced apples layered with a whole-wheat matzah batter featuring ground walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon. Hands down the closest we’ve come to the taste of apple pie on Passover, and a side dish/dessert I’d feel comfortable serving year-round.

Another interesting dish we tried was an herb polenta made with matzo meal instead of corn meal. It was tasty and inventive, and given the leniences of yom tov cooking, we could serve it freshly fried at dinner.

The book also has many traditional recipes for Passover standards like charoset, chicken soup, and matzo balls. So, while I wouldn’t recommend packing your Molly Goldberg Jewish Cookbook away with the chametz next year, this cookbook can stand on its own as a comprehensive holiday source.

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of browsing your local Kitchen Kapers store (PA, NJ, DE), I highly recommend you make a visit. The two that I have been to are both well-stocked and knowledgeably-staffed stores that are always pleasant to browse and buy from. The real reason I am writing this post, though, is that my most recent visit introduced me to Kitchen Kapers’s interesting and varied selection of kosher products that I have not seen before. The creme brulee caramelizing sugar and creme brulee making kit were cRc. They also stock Robert Rothschild mustards and sauces, many, though not all, of which are kosher (Q-Kof). I am looking forward to my next trip, when I will probably pick up a jar of Robert Rothschild Raspberry Wasabi Dipping Mustard.

Where do I start? We had so many new wines over the first two days of Passover that it was difficult to keep track of them all, but of particular note were two reds from California and a pinotage from South Africa.

Gan Eden’s 2000 Syrah was surprising: despite its whopping 16% alcohol by volume, this non-mevushal bottle from the always-reliable Gan Eden was more subtle than the Australian Shiraz that I’m used to. I found some fruitiness, a peppery finish, and a heck of a surprise when I tried to stand up (I mean c’mon, 16%ABV?!). There wasn’t even a hint of the syrupy or alcoholic flavors that most of these bruisers exhibit, and if I hadn’t re-read the label I would have thought that it was something in the boiled flaken that kept the room spinning.

Weinstock Cellar’s Lodi 2000 Zinfandel (mevushal) was a cruiserwieght in comparison (13.5%ABV) although I found it too hard-charging and tart for my tastes, but its fruit flavors and low level of tanins were appealling to many of our guests who don?t generally go for dry reds. (This red zin seems to be so new to the market that I couldn?t find a picture of the label or any other reference to it on the Royal Wine Corporation?s
web site).

Even more appealing to those who usually like Moscato with their dinner was the Backsberg 2003 Pinotage. This South African (mevushal) red was soft and almost sweet, with a hint of vanilla. Again not my cup of tea, but a crowd-pleaser with our crowd of dry wine novitiates.

A few days late, but still appropriately timed around Passover, the Glad and Whirlpool brands bring us National Clean Out Your Refridgerator Week. Visit the official site, www.cleanoutyourfridge.com for tips, statistics, and a contest that could win you a new fridge. (seen at Boston.com)

The answer is a turducken. You’re thinking, “Hey Jon, what’s a turducken?” Well, it’s a turkey, which is stuffed with a duck, which is stuffed with a chicken. That’s right — three birds in one, all de-boned (except for the turkey legs and wings) and with added regular stuffing between the layers.

For our first seder this year, we procured a ready-prepared (but not cooked) turducken from Aaron’s Gourmet Emporium in Rego Park, NY. (While you can prepare one on your own, our estimates and anecdotal evidence suggest that it can take upwards of two full days to de-bone and stuff the birds. So, we felt it was well worth it to pay someone else to do it for us.) The turkey was somewhere between 14 and 16 pounds, and we estimated that the duck was around 4 pounds and the chicken about 2 pounds, making for about 20 pounds of poultry. When I picked up the birds, I was handed two well-wrapped bags — one with the (heavy) frozen turducken and one with a quart of extra stuffing, a quart of gravy, and a pint of cranberry sauce, all K-for-P. I then promptly left it all in the car from around noon until the time I got it to Dave’s house (where the first seder was held) in Brookline at around 8:30 pm.

Dave took the turducken out of the freezer Thursday night before Pesach and put it in the oven Monday morning at around 9:45 am, at around 250 F (slightly time-weighted average since he dropped the temp mid-way through cooking to ensure even done-ness by the time we got to shulchan oreich), and took it out at close to 9 pm when we ate it.

And ate it we did! There were ten of us at the seder and there was just about no bird left at the end of the meal. I think Dave was left with the two turkey legs and turkey wings and perhaps a piece or two of carved turkey. That’s about it. You can probably figure out that it was good if ten people managed to eat 20 pounds of boneless poultry. When asked how the duck fat drains from the turducken, the nice folks at Aaron’s said it doesn’t — the stuffing and white meat absorb the duck fat. Yep, it’s that good. It was perhaps the most moist white meat turkey I have ever had, but a very good turkey roaster can achieve comparable turkey greatness, albeit without the added goodness of duck. I don’t think I got any pieces of chicken (being the smallest, only the center cuts had chicken), but I’ll guess it was good. The duck was tender and moist, as duck should be, without being dripping in fat, which was a concern given the lack of drainage typical with duck roasting. The one thing you don’t get with a turducken is crisp roasted poultry skin, as the oven isn’t hot enough to do that and the inner birds aren’t even exposed.

While I would say that it was a great meal, I don’t know that I’d go to the trouble of having a turducken more than once in a long while, perhaps every other or every third year. It’s mighty expensive and I’m not completely sold that it’s worth the time and effort over just making a turkey, a duck, and a chicken separately for one meal. Of course, that wouldn’t be as good, but if we had turducken all the time, it wouldn’t be as exciting, would it?

I hope you all had pleasant and meaningful and gastronomically interesting Sederim. I did and in the course of them had two noteworthy wines, both of which were purchased at Queen Anne Wine in Teaneck.

During the Shulchan Oreich portions of our Sederim we opened several good wines, but it is the two reds (one each night) that I will comment on. For the first seder, we had a 2002 Beckett’s Flat Cabernet-Shiraz (50%/50%) from the Margaret River region of Western Australia. As a quick side note, I believe that not all Beckett’s Flat wine has hashcagacha, so please be prudent, but all of their kosher wine is K-for-P and mevushal. This was a very pleasant, fruity and effectively semi-dry wine. It had a very full flavor, but was not heavy or thick. It had hints of cherry and other sweet berries that developed more as the wine opened up. The two grapes that constitute this wine marry very well and you can sense the interplay between them if you are familiar with both Cabernet and Shiraz. For those who find Shiraz to be a little too rough around the edges for many settings, this blend does a marvelous job of settling the Shiraz and kicking up the Cabernet. Beckett’s Flat wines are readily available and usually fall in the $15-$20 range.

Our second Seder dinner red was a 2000 Galil Mountain Yiron (Galilee), which is a 60% Cabernet-40% Merlot blend (non-mevushal). I am not particularly familiar with the Galil Mountain Winery, but I look forward to learning more. The 2000 seems to be the first bottling as the winery was formed then as “a joint venture of Golan Heights Winery and Kibbutz Yiron…. The winery is an enterprise that combines the unique features of the Upper Galilee mountains with the expertise of the Golan Heights Winery in producing top quality wines.” As the constituent grapes would suggest, the Yiron was a notably fuller than the Cab-Shiraz blend and had a noticeably sharper taste from expected greater level of tannin. Again, I felt that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts and that the interplay between the Cabernet and the Merlot brought out the best in both grapes. This is certainly a dry wine on the greater spectrum, but has a soft feel and a very smooth finish. Like the Cab-Shiraz, this had cherry notes, but the other hints of fruit suggested darker berries, and perhaps plums. And the oak from the wine’s prebottling aging comes through as well.. The bottle notes that this wine should develop nicely if well-shelved for 5-7 years and I could definitely see the potential for greater development (though this was a new purchase for us, it did already have 3.5-4 years under its belt). Like the Beckett’s Flat, the Galil Mountain Yiron runs just under $20 ($17.99 at Queen Anne Wine), but their single grape bottlings are in the $12-$15 range.

I have a recipe for a delicious dessert which could be made for Passover if only Pesadik condensed milk were available. Anyone seen such a product?