RELISH AUSTIN

Be your own dairy

You don't need cows, just milk and starters and patience

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Making your own dairy products doesn't have to be a daunting idea. Some things, such as butter and yogurt, require only one or two ingredients and just a little technique. Cheeses, on the other hand, take a bit more effort, but the payoff can be worth it — if you've got the patience to try, try and try again.

But the question becomes, is it worth the cost of the ingredients and the value of your time to make something you can buy at the grocery store?

Even with the soaring cost of milk, making your own dairy products can save you some dollars. But for me, the attraction was getting back to the basics. By making dairy products at home, you also can control things such as the quality of milk and the amount of salt.

Ultimately, it boils down to freshness. Most dairy products, with the exception of aged cheeses, are best just after they are made. How much fresher can you get than what you make in your own kitchen?

Dairyphiles will find plenty of guidance online and in several tried-and-true books, many of which are written by "queen of cheese" Ricki Carroll. Kathy Farrell-Kingsley recently published "The Home Creamery," which I followed in many of my attempts, with varying degrees of success.

Trial and error is an essential part of dairy-making, because milk can be so fickle. Different brands use different forms of pasteurization and homogenization, which means a recipe will work with one kind of milk but not another. (For example, ultrahigh-temperature pasteurization is the reason some organic milk lasts so long and can also be the reason your cheese doesn't curdle right.)

But don't be disheartened. Several dairy products, including farm and ricotta cheeses as well as butter, are easy and fun to make and require only one or two ingredients and little technical skill.

Butter is probably the easiest. It's just a step or two past homemade whipped cream, minus the sugar and with the addition of some salt or other flavoring.

No measuring chemicals or taking temperatures are required for butter. Just let cream sit on the counter for about 25 minutes, put it in a food processor or jar, then blend or shake it until it turns a light yellow and sloshes around. In the food processor, this only takes a few minutes. Blending by hand takes a little while longer but not more than 25 to 30 minutes.

The cream will separate into butter and buttermilk, so pour off the liquid and keep blending. As more liquid is extracted, pour it off.

After two or three of these "washing" cycles, add a little cold water and blend again to wash off any remaining buttermilk, which makes butter turn rancid more quickly.

Once you're done, wrap the butter in plastic and refrigerate. You get about half as much butter as the amount of cream you started with.

It's easy and perfectly suited for high-energy little ones who want to help in the kitchen. Just give them a jar and tell them not to come back until it's thick and yellow.

Once you make basic butter, you can let your imagination run wild. You can use a flavored cream (Promised Land, a milk company based in Floresville, sells a double peach cream that makes a wonderful sweet butter) or add herbs or spices. I made a cilantro garlic butter that's delicious on just about anything.

Yogurt is a little trickier than butter, but it's still worth the effort if you're into thin, tart yogurt that works best in smoothies and on cereal. Heat four cups of milk to 185 degrees to sterilize it, then let it cool to between 105 and 115 degrees. Add 1/4 cup plain yogurt and incubate in a turned-off gas oven with a pilot light (electric ovens don't maintain the warmth needed) or a cooler with a lid for 8-14 hours. I couldn't get my yogurt to get thicker than heavy cream, which is about the consistency of the yogurt I used as a starter. Technically, I made yogurt, but I was a little disappointed that the texture remained so runny. Still usable, though, just not my cup of, well, yogurt.

You can add powdered milk or unflavored gelatin to thicken your yogurt, but don't add any flavoring (honey, jam or plain sugar) until after you're done making the yogurt and have refrigerated it.

Making soft cheeses, such as ricotta and farm cheese, is more readily mastered. The ricotta process is simple: Warm a gallon of milk and "break" it with an acid. Lemon juice (six tablespoons per gallon of milk) is a tastier option than vinegar or buttermilk, but all work well. Skim off the curds, strain through a cheesecloth or butter muslin and season with salt. (Don't tell the cheese masters, but good quality paper towels or an old pillow case also do the trick.)

Lasagna has the reputation of being an expensive dish to cook, but making your own ricotta is one way to reduce the cost.

Mozzarella is technically just a small jump up from making ricotta or farm cheese, but making it from scratch is like leaping over the Grand Canyon if you ask me. Rennet and citric acid are required, and though both are available at specialty grocers and natural food stores, using them to make curd is a highly calculated and at times extremely frustrating process. The brand of milk, type of equipment and even weather can throw off your recipe, and you'll end up with something more similar to cottage cheese than mozzarella curd.

You'll save yourself an afternoon of experimentation and several gallons of milk if you just buy the curd and go from there. Even Jerry Pizzitola, a local personal chef and mozzarella expert, starts with pre-made curd because he says making it from scratch isn't worth the time and effort, especially if you're just starting out. (You can buy curd for $5 to $7 a pound at Whole Foods, Central Market and specialty shops such as Mandola's Market.)

He says to cut the curds into cubes and pour 165-degree water over them. Within seconds, the curds should start to jell together, which is when you start stretching it into balls, braids or knots. Pizzitola has plenty of tips on making and stretching mozzarella in a video on Austin360.com.

Another thing about mozzarella is that you can make several pounds of it and store it for later. Pizzitola says it freezes well, and you can keep it in a marinade in the fridge for weeks.

If you are interested in making more than the dairy products I've included in this column, you might consider taking a class. Rebeccah Durkin teaches soft and hard cheese-making classes at Homestead Heritage farm, just north of Waco.

She shows you how to make everything from mozzarella curd to brie, cheddar, gouda and even Parmesan. Day-long classes are $130, and you can register online at www.cfeeschool.com.

Durkin also has a book on cheese-making called "Cheesemaking at Home," which is available at www.hoeggergoatsupply.com or at Heritage Homestead.

Cheese-making "really is a lost art," Durkin says. "Some people just come out of curiosity, but a lot of people are seeing the need to make things themselves. There's a sense of fulfillment in making your own food."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Cheese-making resources online

New England Cheesemaking Supply, www.cheesemaking.com

Hoegger Goat Supply, www.hoeggergoat supply.com

Leener's, www.leeners.com/cheesemaking.html

Fankhauser's Cheese Page, biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

Squash Pappardelle with Fresh Farm Cheese

For the farm cheese:

1 pint whole milk

2 ounces lemon juice

Zest of half a lemon

1/2 tsp. salt

For the pappardelle:

3 sunburst squash (sliced into 1-inch ribbons)

2 zucchini (sliced into 1-inch ribbons)

2 oz. water

1 oz. extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

For cheese, heat salted milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Add lemon juice, and let milk start to separate. Strain through cheesecloth in refrigerator.

For pappardelle, heat a nonstick pan, and add the squash and zucchini. Add water for thirty seconds to steam. Add olive oil, farm cheese and season to taste.

— Todd Duplechan, Four Seasons chef de cuisine

Mozzarella marinade

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. crushed red pepper

1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped

3 Tbsp. Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

Mix well and use to marinate up to 3 pounds of freshly pulled mozzarella. If you don't use it all, you can store marinade in refrigerator for several weeks.

— Jerry Pizzitola