For those who can't do raw milk yet

[Guest guest]

For reasons like availability problems and overcoming social conditioning some

people just can't drink raw milk. I've been thinking about the cultures they

sell for cheesemaking, which is my current obsession. If you can't get raw milk

or can't drink it, is culturing fresh store milk a good alternative?

It seems to me pretty reasonable cost-wise. Kefir is a one-time investment. My

cultures I used for making butter cost $6 something and are good for around 32

gallons of milk. At least then it has something alive in it, creating

(hopefully) some enzymes and making some of the nutrients more bioavailable.

(there are two categories of cultures for making cheese - mesophilic means

active at room temperature, like kefir, and thermophilic means it requires heat

to work, like yogurt). The cultures they sell on www.thecheesemaker.com produce

different flavors and textures in the milk. We used one that kept the milk's

fluidity but made it taste rich and buttery (day 1 - second day it had yogurt-y

flavors but pleasant - made great ice cream!). Some will thicken it like creme

fraiche.

Cheesemaking has some interesting additives - calcium chloride is added to milk,

to as they say restore the damaged protein so it behaves more like raw milk.

Huh. I didn't know that was so easily accomplished. It also adds calcium to

the milk in a form that is bioavailable to yeasts and good bacteria which helps

them thrive.

Lipase powder breaks down the fat molecules. I wonder if that would help people

who have troble digesting the homogenized milk?? But I just read lipase is

responsible for making milk taste rancid, so probably it would not be palatable.

There are a lot of interesting milk tidbits here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/dairy-product-2

[Guest guest]

yes, this is what NT says on p. 33 and p. 35 - use cultured dairy if you cannot

handle or find raw dairy. unhomogenized would be better than homogenized.

>

> For reasons like availability problems and overcoming social conditioning some

people just can't drink raw milk. I've been thinking about the cultures they

sell for cheesemaking, which is my current obsession. If you can't get raw milk

or can't drink it, is culturing fresh store milk a good alternative?