Milk for Cheesemaking
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.
Hi. I just read this, and something doesn’t strike true. The curd is the product of proteolysis, and has absolutely nothing to do with the fat content. It should not matter, from the point of view of making a curd, whether the fat is in small or large globules. It will matter to the final sensory characteristics of the cheese, but it should not matter simply in terms of curd production. I’ll point out that goat’s milk is "naturally homogenized" with extremely small and evenly distributed fat globules. Due to the nature of its casein, it does not do a good job of mozzarella, but it does other cheese types adequately or better.Parenthetically, I’ll point out that we used to raise milk goats on the winery property, and I used to milk them twice a day. Three milkers yielded 2 1/2 gallons of milk/day, far too much for us. Lots of cheese was made.
Message for Jabbett:
Did you join Just Dairy? A Globe article is coming out soon and the journalist was looking for a cheesemaker for the article, I wish I would have known about you for the article!
Anyway, Just Dairy is growing like crazy. Check out the in-progress website.
Cyndy
Cyndy– I’m involved with Dave Cushing’s Metro-West drive share. We’re just starting up for the season now, getting our milk from Ardent Arts Farm in New Hampshire. It’s my plan to get more cheesemaking experimentation going next month. If you know of any other raw milk hobbyist cheesemakers in the group, put me in touch; I’d love to find out what others are doing in the realm of DIY cheese.
The Just Dairy site is great, looks very well coordinated.
Please let us know when the article appears in the Globe.
Final RAW
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