Making Soured Milk

I was late getting out to milk on Saturday morning. Kev and I didn't get home until 1:20am and then dh woke with a start at 6am asking, "How did THAT happen?" He always panics a bit when he wakes up so late and the sun is shining so brightly. He's normally out of bed by 2:30am. Most people's eyes widen at the thought of getting up so early.

But you know, it's not that hard to get up at 2:30am when you go to bed at 6 or 7pm. And when you repeatedly get up at 2:30am, it's easy to go to bed at 6 or 7pm. You are ready for bed by that time, trust me.

Even though we "slept in" we were dragging from lack of sleep, I got less than five hours and it's pretty hard for me to cope on so few hours. We lolly-gagged around and finally made our way out to milk. Since it had rained very hard on Friday night, I figured there would be millions upon millions of flies, especially since it is The Time of the Flies.

Amazingly, there were only two or three flies hanging around and they didn't even harrass me or the girls while I milked. The previous day I'd forgotten some milk in a plastic bucket and it smelled delicious. No really. Raw milk doesn't go rotten or putrid like pasteurized or homogenized milk. I remember the first time I soured milk on purpose. I was afraid I was going to get food poisoning and be sick for days. But if you think about it, what's yogurt? Simply soured milk, the only difference is specific bacteria is added to turn the milk into yogurt.

So I decided to try a new experiment. Usually when the urge strikes to make yogurt and/or soured milk, I get out my yogurt maker. A time or two I've put a gallon of milk on the dryer which sits outside on the back porch, to let it sour. After it curdles, I strain it and it makes the most fantastic cream cheese.

My new experiment was to try making yogurt without using the yogurt maker. I strained the milk, mixed in some Fage (the MOST delicious yogurt and given to us free) for starter and set it on the dryer which is outside on the porch.

Twelve hours later, the yogurt was not yet yogurt. I think it wasn't hot enough out. Although my yogurt maker stays at a constant 125°F, yogurt can be made at a lower temperature. In fact, making it at a lower temperature creates a more nutritious product, especially when you start out with raw milk.

In the picture above, the jar on the right holds the yogurt, the jar on the left is plain milk.

Fermented foods are an important component to our diets as they provide friendly bacteria which helps our digestive systems to work effectively.

The big rage seems to be fiber, fiber, fiber. While fiber is important, it can wreak havoc on your digestive system and cause major problems if you get too much of it. Sometimes the problem is not a need for fiber, but for fermented foods, especially if you take antibiotics. Foods which will add friendly bacteria to your digestive system, and help your body get all the nutrients it can from the foods you eat. Of course, that depends on if the food you eat has nutritional content. If you're living off Pop Tarts, McDoubles and slushees, you are probably starving in a nutritional sense. Sometimes I think it's pretty fantastic how our bodies can survive on the foods we ingest.

The next morning, Sunday, I checked my concoctions. The yogurt was indeed yogurt, and the sour milk had separated into curds and whey.

I strained out the whey and gave it to the chickens, and was left with what looked to be sour cream. A little bit lumpy, but it had a delicious and rich salty taste, nonetheless. I used some of it to make homemade ranch dressing along with some of my homemade yogurt and it just made the taste.

I'm glad my experiment worked out!

DISCLAIMER: Now remember, do NOT try this with store bought milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized. It will not sour naturally, because all of the natural bacteria that causes it to sour and taste delicious has been killed. Homogenized and pasteurized store bought milk WILL turn putrid and nasty, and if you could get past the stink and slime to ingest it you would undoubtedly become very sick.

Until next time.

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103 Dead and Counting

I went on a killing rampage this morning. The instrument of death:

Yes, it's that time of year again. The farmer across the road a field full of rotting melons and now we're sharing our daily life with millions of flies. Everywhere you go, everywhere you turn. In the house, on the porch, in the milking parlor, in the vehicles. Here they are on the porch:
And what self-respecting fly wouldn't be thrilled to call a garbage can his or her own?

I've blogged about the flies before:

The flies, the flies!!! June 27, 2006
The Flies Part II July 12, 2006
Hoof Trims in the Summer with a Side of Flies June 9, 2007

The 103 confirmed dead were in the kitchen. When I walked through the living room back into the kitchen, another 700 were in the kitchen, awaiting the smackdown of their lives.

Rain makes it worse. We're expecting three inches of rain.

Until next time.

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