goat cheese and ghee

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

Last night I was reading through a new cook book (Vegetarian Cooking for

Everyone, by Deborah Madison), and came across " ghee " , which I had seen some

questions on the list a while back, but wasn't sure if they got answered.

 

So just an FYI if you want to know:

 

Melt butter like you are going to make clarified butter. Once the butter has

melted, lower the heat even more and continue cooking until there is a crusty

covering on the top, the butter beneath is perfectly clear and deep gold and the

milk solids are light brown, 40 minutes to 1 hour. Ghee provides Indian cooking

w/ one of it's distinctive flavors.

 

Sounds like more effort than I want to do, but now you know.

 

As for goat cheese, I know a little When I was a teenager I had several

goats as a 4-H'er, and even made my own cheese. What I would recommend is

getting your cheese at a local farmers market, vs. the stuff in the store,

unless they are buying locally.

 

There are several breeds of goats, and people have them based on what they are

looking for in milk. Some have higher butter fats, some produce more milk, etc.

 

The funny thing is that some goats genetically have " good " milk, and some

produce that " goat milk " with the goatie flavor. We had one girl who was like

that, her milk was kind of yucky, so it just went back to the babies. The other

girls I had, you wouldn't have known it was goat unless we told you.

 

I've made feta with mine, and it was pretty good. I've also had goat blue

cheese, goat cheddar, soft cheeses, all the good stuff! I've found that the soft

goat cheeses that you can pick up in the local stores tend to taste goatie, and

I pass on them.

 

When you have a larger farm, all it takes is to toss a couple of goats that

make the yucky flavor milk into the milk vat, and now it all has a goat taste,

which is too bad, because it doesn't have to taste that way.

 

Also, what a goat eats can change the flavor, so if they get out and raid the

garden, you can end up with garlic milk, onion milk, and other " surprises. "

 

Same with chicken eggs too. We have a small range flock (the girls get to run

free!) and on top of the scratch they get, they pick up bugs and other things

they find. We also feed them the left over kitchen scraps, so if there happens

to be onions or garlic in it, you end up with flavored eggs. Not so bad if you

are making an omelet or something, but not good if you decide to make a cake

For the most part, we pitch the onions and garlic stuff into the compost bin,

but every once and a while....

 

If you do eat eggs, and ever get the chance, buy them from a local farmer. I

didn't know what I was missing out on until we move to the " country " and got our

own. The eggs you pick up at the store are usually 30 days old or around there.

Fresh eggs have bright, brilliant yellow/orange yolks, and whites that aren't

running all over the place. If you try to bake a white cake mix, you still end

up with a yellow cake Only thing is that fresh eggs don't make a good hard

boiled egg at all.

 

Onward and upward,

 

Libby

 

 

 

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