For simple, easy-to-understand instructions on canning and freezing, pick up the Ball Blue Book. They carry it at WalMart near the canning supplies. It isn't very expensive. It has lots of good recipes in there, too.
Homemade Yogurt **Updated** Cheese and Buttermilk
- Thread starter MissPrissy
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #332
Quote:
Thank you BearSwampChick. The Ball Blue Book has been recommended several times in this thread. I meant to come back and include that once again but it slipped my mind while I was batching a pot of soap. Thank you, again!
Thank you BearSwampChick. The Ball Blue Book has been recommended several times in this thread. I meant to come back and include that once again but it slipped my mind while I was batching a pot of soap. Thank you, again!
Quote:
Thank you BearSwampChick. The Ball Blue Book has been recommended several times in this thread. I meant to come back and include that once again but it slipped my mind while I was batching a pot of soap. Thank you, again!
Oops! I just read the whole thread and I must have missed it. Sorry to repeat.
Thank you BearSwampChick. The Ball Blue Book has been recommended several times in this thread. I meant to come back and include that once again but it slipped my mind while I was batching a pot of soap. Thank you, again!
Oops! I just read the whole thread and I must have missed it. Sorry to repeat.
- Thread starter
- #334
No, no, no!
Thank you for adding it again! It is one of the best sources for info and recipes for canning food in either method.
Thank you for adding it again! It is one of the best sources for info and recipes for canning food in either method.
- Thread starter
- #335
This is for those who would like to make cultured buttermilk. CULTURED buttermilk is also an excellent starter for making cheese, too.
There are two kinds of buttermilk. One is cultured buttermilk, the thick creamy tart milk we find most often in the grocery stores. The other is 'old fashioned buttermilk' or the whey (watery yellowish liquid) that remains from milk when making cheese or churning butter. Two completely different things but both very good and useful in your kitchen (and for your chickens!).
For cultured buttermilk you can buy a dry bacteria culture and start from scratch or you can use a good buttermilk that you like that is labled 'cultured buttermilk' (from the store) to make your own.
Back at Thanksgiving when my mother was here we made so many pans of biscuits (almost twice a day everyday for a week!) that I ran out of buttermilk and had to go to the store and buy a quart.
What was left I used to make more buttermilk.
Take a clean jar with a tight fitting lid and fill it with about 8 oz of good cultured buttermilk (check the date and make sure its good because the bacteria can die and then it won't be useful in making more).
Top off the jar with fresh whole milk. Skim and 2% milk will work just fine but those don't make as creamy and rich of a buttermilk. My goats milk makes a nice thick buttermilk.
I use the jars of milk that have sat in my fridge and usually choose the one with the thickest amount of cream that has come to the top. For those of you who don't have access to fresh milk I am so sorry because the whole fatty cream filled milk is like cheating because you can't get the same incredible richness from commercial milk. You can still make an excellent product from store bought milk but the fresh from the tap is even more awesome.
Put the lid on the jar tightly and place it in a warm place for at least 24 hours. I keep mine on the corner of counter closest to my wood stove. It is warm there and the bacteria that make the buttermilk love it there.
After 24 hours the milk in the jar is the same as the milk that came out of the container - only I made it at home and didn't have to go out to the store and spend more money for it.
The buttermilk should be thick and creamy. It should have a tart taste, not bitter. When you pour it the milk should coat the inside of the glass.
If your buttermilk isn't thickening after 24 hours let it sit for and extra 12 hours. If at the end of 36 hours it isn't thick this mean the culture had died priot to your using it to make more buttermilk. Start over with a fresh container of buttermilk.
If at the end of 36 hours if it is thick this one might be a bit too tart for drinking but perfectly fine for baking and other cooking needs.
Refrigerate your buttermilk and it should last several weeks - unless you use it all up quickly. In that case you need to make more!
If you don't want to culture buttermilk from a commercially made buttermilk you can buy the culture here to make it. You can also save the whey from making your cheese and use that to culture more buttermilk. Just remember the whey won't be thick and creamy, it will be thin, watery and more acidic and sour than the one we cultured here that is tart.
There are two kinds of buttermilk. One is cultured buttermilk, the thick creamy tart milk we find most often in the grocery stores. The other is 'old fashioned buttermilk' or the whey (watery yellowish liquid) that remains from milk when making cheese or churning butter. Two completely different things but both very good and useful in your kitchen (and for your chickens!).
For cultured buttermilk you can buy a dry bacteria culture and start from scratch or you can use a good buttermilk that you like that is labled 'cultured buttermilk' (from the store) to make your own.
Back at Thanksgiving when my mother was here we made so many pans of biscuits (almost twice a day everyday for a week!) that I ran out of buttermilk and had to go to the store and buy a quart.
What was left I used to make more buttermilk.
Take a clean jar with a tight fitting lid and fill it with about 8 oz of good cultured buttermilk (check the date and make sure its good because the bacteria can die and then it won't be useful in making more).
Top off the jar with fresh whole milk. Skim and 2% milk will work just fine but those don't make as creamy and rich of a buttermilk. My goats milk makes a nice thick buttermilk.
I use the jars of milk that have sat in my fridge and usually choose the one with the thickest amount of cream that has come to the top. For those of you who don't have access to fresh milk I am so sorry because the whole fatty cream filled milk is like cheating because you can't get the same incredible richness from commercial milk. You can still make an excellent product from store bought milk but the fresh from the tap is even more awesome.
Put the lid on the jar tightly and place it in a warm place for at least 24 hours. I keep mine on the corner of counter closest to my wood stove. It is warm there and the bacteria that make the buttermilk love it there.
After 24 hours the milk in the jar is the same as the milk that came out of the container - only I made it at home and didn't have to go out to the store and spend more money for it.
The buttermilk should be thick and creamy. It should have a tart taste, not bitter. When you pour it the milk should coat the inside of the glass.
If your buttermilk isn't thickening after 24 hours let it sit for and extra 12 hours. If at the end of 36 hours it isn't thick this mean the culture had died priot to your using it to make more buttermilk. Start over with a fresh container of buttermilk.
If at the end of 36 hours if it is thick this one might be a bit too tart for drinking but perfectly fine for baking and other cooking needs.
Refrigerate your buttermilk and it should last several weeks - unless you use it all up quickly. In that case you need to make more!
If you don't want to culture buttermilk from a commercially made buttermilk you can buy the culture here to make it. You can also save the whey from making your cheese and use that to culture more buttermilk. Just remember the whey won't be thick and creamy, it will be thin, watery and more acidic and sour than the one we cultured here that is tart.
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There are two kinds of buttermilk. One is cultured buttermilk, the thick creamy tart milk we find most often in the grocery stores. The other is 'old fashioned buttermilk' or the whey (watery yellowish liquid) that remains from milk when making cheese or churning butter. Two completely different things but both very good and useful in your kitchen (and for your chickens!).
What's left after churning butter is buttermilk. This "buttermilk" when served fresh,is more like skim milk,especially if its been sieved to remove butter flecks. If this milk is left to set on the dairy bench,at room temperature,uncovered in a wide shallow pan,for up to 18 hours,then natural cultures will sour the milk. Refrigerate as soon as possible. If you wish to make a product similar to grocery-style buttermilk,but without all the additives,emulsifiers and thickeners...there IS a WAY out. For every gallon of milk[can be whole,low-fat or skim] add one cup of dry milk powder and stir in thoroughly. Heat very slowly;raising temp by five degrees every two minutes to 180 degrees and hold this temp for 45 minutes. Cool to 78 degrees and add cultures. you can use a half-gallon of store bought buttermilk,but I don't guarantee the results. I buy active cultures from www.dairyconnection.com,costs $8.50 for a small bottle to make enough for 20-24 gallons of buttermilk;$11.50 will get you a 2x size bottle enough for 50 or so gallons of buttermilk. Buy the smaller bottle and save a quart of buttermilk to keep as active cultures for your next batch. These 'saved' cultures will keep two weeks,refrigerated. This same type of culture can be used to make sour cream,cream cheese and Quark.
Whey is the byproduct of cheese-making;not butter-making. Milk is brought to a relative high temp for a period of time;then lowered to somewhere between 76-105 degrees;cultures are added. The cultures contain "friendly" bacteria,of a known type. These friendlies create an environment that is conducive to propagating more of the same bacteria only... excluding all other types. As the cultures multiply,they consume the milk sugars[lactose] and convert them to acid[lactic]. When the proper Ph level has been reached,for that particular type of cheese that's being made,rennet is gently stirred in and the whole batch is allowed to set for a "clean break" for a period of time. This CLEAN BREAK is when the CURD[white solids] separate from the WHEY[greenish-yellow watery liquid.] The curd is the further handled to make cheese,but that's not what I'm talking about. It's the byproduct WHEY that has my attention now. If you were to take this whey and further acidulate it,say with some fresh lemon juice or citric acid[every cheese-maker has this item handy],bring the whey just to a boil and then strained though a cheesecloth[ever wonder where that name came from?] lined colander. Gather up your cloth tight tie and hang over a bowl to catch the drippings. After 3-6-8 hours depending on how much you have...I usually end up with around a pound from a four gallon batch of milk...you have Italian-style ricotta cheese;salt to taste and refrigerate. If you take the whey and add say apple cider vinegar[personal preference-white distilled will work],instead of lemon juice,bring the whey to just a boil and add the vinegar a teaspoon at a time,up to a 1/4 cup depending,until the curds start to float. Drain,strain and hang as you did for ricotta;you end up with queso blanco. Also,whey can be used as water replacement in bread baking as it adds protein to the dough or sponge. I use whey mixed with fresh fruit juice and yogurt as a "smoothie" served ice cold. And of course one could also feed the whey as is to the chickens.
All y'all take care!
What's left after churning butter is buttermilk. This "buttermilk" when served fresh,is more like skim milk,especially if its been sieved to remove butter flecks. If this milk is left to set on the dairy bench,at room temperature,uncovered in a wide shallow pan,for up to 18 hours,then natural cultures will sour the milk. Refrigerate as soon as possible. If you wish to make a product similar to grocery-style buttermilk,but without all the additives,emulsifiers and thickeners...there IS a WAY out. For every gallon of milk[can be whole,low-fat or skim] add one cup of dry milk powder and stir in thoroughly. Heat very slowly;raising temp by five degrees every two minutes to 180 degrees and hold this temp for 45 minutes. Cool to 78 degrees and add cultures. you can use a half-gallon of store bought buttermilk,but I don't guarantee the results. I buy active cultures from www.dairyconnection.com,costs $8.50 for a small bottle to make enough for 20-24 gallons of buttermilk;$11.50 will get you a 2x size bottle enough for 50 or so gallons of buttermilk. Buy the smaller bottle and save a quart of buttermilk to keep as active cultures for your next batch. These 'saved' cultures will keep two weeks,refrigerated. This same type of culture can be used to make sour cream,cream cheese and Quark.
Whey is the byproduct of cheese-making;not butter-making. Milk is brought to a relative high temp for a period of time;then lowered to somewhere between 76-105 degrees;cultures are added. The cultures contain "friendly" bacteria,of a known type. These friendlies create an environment that is conducive to propagating more of the same bacteria only... excluding all other types. As the cultures multiply,they consume the milk sugars[lactose] and convert them to acid[lactic]. When the proper Ph level has been reached,for that particular type of cheese that's being made,rennet is gently stirred in and the whole batch is allowed to set for a "clean break" for a period of time. This CLEAN BREAK is when the CURD[white solids] separate from the WHEY[greenish-yellow watery liquid.] The curd is the further handled to make cheese,but that's not what I'm talking about. It's the byproduct WHEY that has my attention now. If you were to take this whey and further acidulate it,say with some fresh lemon juice or citric acid[every cheese-maker has this item handy],bring the whey just to a boil and then strained though a cheesecloth[ever wonder where that name came from?] lined colander. Gather up your cloth tight tie and hang over a bowl to catch the drippings. After 3-6-8 hours depending on how much you have...I usually end up with around a pound from a four gallon batch of milk...you have Italian-style ricotta cheese;salt to taste and refrigerate. If you take the whey and add say apple cider vinegar[personal preference-white distilled will work],instead of lemon juice,bring the whey to just a boil and add the vinegar a teaspoon at a time,up to a 1/4 cup depending,until the curds start to float. Drain,strain and hang as you did for ricotta;you end up with queso blanco. Also,whey can be used as water replacement in bread baking as it adds protein to the dough or sponge. I use whey mixed with fresh fruit juice and yogurt as a "smoothie" served ice cold. And of course one could also feed the whey as is to the chickens.
All y'all take care!
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- Thread starter
- #337
The whey from cheese making makes excellent buttermilk. When making cheese a gallon of milk will usually leave 3/4 of a gallon of whey. Itis far too valuable to throw out. It cultures really well and makes excellent buttermilk. Back in the pages of this post I believe I have phontos of it.
I can see now where I was completely clear in my previous post with old fashioned buttermilk and whey.
I can see now where I was completely clear in my previous post with old fashioned buttermilk and whey.
Helloooo from Arkansas
I am going to try your yogurt recipe....I'm supposed to eat yogurt daily anyway....soooo why not your homemade...I've not read all this post, but I've came up with several other recipes...
can you tell me how many recipes you have put in this post without me going thru all the pages? My life is crazy..and if you don't know right off-hand, don't worry about it...I'll take it in shifts
! My children are great yogurt eaters as well
Thank you again
Parson's wife-forgive me for butting in here but if you use the recipe she put on the first page of this subject then go here and look at her step-by-step process you cannot go wrong. I had never made anything like yogurt in my life until this post. It is wonderful. Here is the photo step-by- step link for you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9738&p=7
Welcome!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9738&p=7
Welcome!
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Thank you...
here's hoping!
By the way...I attended a youth camp this summer at Racine, MO.....was a lot of fun...it's one of 4 youth camps we have to attend (we are the sectional youth leaders for the PCG) anyway...we then went over to Springfield and the Bass Pro Shop...that makes 3 times I've been there...loved it! I want to go to Mansfield, MO to Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum...ever been?
Thanks
By the way...I attended a youth camp this summer at Racine, MO.....was a lot of fun...it's one of 4 youth camps we have to attend (we are the sectional youth leaders for the PCG) anyway...we then went over to Springfield and the Bass Pro Shop...that makes 3 times I've been there...loved it! I want to go to Mansfield, MO to Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum...ever been?
Thanks
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