A word of introduction: Moving to Ireland twenty years ago produced much joy in our lives, but some slight homesickness for things left behind...like specific dairy products. Ireland's dairy produce is of tremendously high quality, but there are basic differences in the way some kinds of dairy products are treated. We discovered that Irish sour cream is much less thick than US sour cream, and not nearly as sour (strange again, in a country where travellers passing through in the 1700's remarked that the Irish had "seventy several" kinds of sour milk products, and the sourer they were, the better the locals liked them). Irish cottage cheese is much wetter and also much less tangy than even the US "large curd" type.

So, on and off over the last ten years, we have been involved in trying to reproduce US-style sour cream and cottage cheese (as well as a couple of cheeses the Irish have failed to clone, or have cloned unsuccessfully and given up on, like Monterey Jack).

The following recipes are what we've found to give good versions of the US-based originals. Sometimes -- in the case of the sour cream, especially -- the results can be better than the originals, which use stabilizers and artificial thickeners to make up for or conceal the fact that (for example) commercial sour cream almost never has cream in it any more.

This has led to other experimentation with dairy products. Occasionally we make our own butter from the local cream. Normally we've been doing this for pleasure, but friends in the US have provided us with another reason: price! Butter prices in the US sometimes seem to go straight through the roof with no reason...and at such times, it can be cheaper to make your own butter from scratch. So we include directions for this here. (Part of this process involves making your own buttermilk, as well, so if you live in a buttermilk-scarce area, this recipe is for you. See below.)

Also included here are recipes for some UK specialties which friends in North America have asked for...specifically clotted cream. It will never be quite as wonderful as it would be in Devon, but if you're willing to go to the trouble to make it from scratch, you'll at least have an idea of what a Devon cream tea can involve.

Warning: except for when the cottage cheese recipe is made with skim milk, all these recipes contain significant amounts of butterfat. If you're on a low fat diet, better not get involved with the sour cream. Regarding the cottage cheese, though, this recipe is an excellent way to let you control both the fat content and the salt in what you're eating.

In the recipes below, "mesophilic starter" is sometimes called for. If you have a source nearby for buttermilk in which the culture is still "live", you can substitute that. Or you can obtain mesophilic starter from a source like the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

How to make your own butter (and buttermilk)

• Click here for info on churning and processing your own butter, and making your own buttermilk as a byproduct

Recipes for making sour cream at home

• Click here for the first method of sour cream making (in which you do not pasteurize the cream first).
• Click here for the second recipe, in which you pasteurize the cream.

How to make cottage cheese from scratch

This is the best recipe we've found, and the most recently acquired. Thanks to Jonathan White, formerly at Egg Farm Dairy, now [happily!] at Bobolink Dairy.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05


      Title: Cottage Cheese from Scratch
 Categories: Dairy, Diet
      Yield: 4 Servings




  Cottage cheese, turn-of-the-century style (19-20th, that is!):


  Take a volume of skim or part skim milk, heat to 145F, hold for 30
  minutes, cool to 90.


  Add a good mesophilic cheese starter (natural sour cream will do.  I
  have also used buttermilk).


  In 12-14 hours, the acidity from the starter will set the milk to a
  soft curd.


  Carefully cut the curd into half-inch cubes, then let it sit for 30
  minutes in the vat to toughen.


  Begin heating the whey GENTLY, about a degree per minute, while gently
  stirring.


  "Cook" the curd this way to about 124-129F, or until the curd passes
  the drop test (doesn't explode when dropped on the floor).  Quickly
  drain the whey, replacing it with an equal quantitiy of chilled clean
  water, to shock it and rinse away the whey.


  Weigh the dry curd, then add an equal weight of "dressing" , which
  should be a 10% milkfat cultured cream.  Add just barely enough salt
  to be detectable by taste.


  (Recipe courtesy of Jonathan White at Egg Farm Dairy,
   formerly at http://www.creamery.com: now [happily!] at Bobolink Dairy)



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How to make Monterey Jack cheese at home

A surprisingly easy cheese to make at home. The flavor is seriously superior to most storebought Monterey Jacks.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05


      Title: Monterey Jack from Scratch #1
 Categories: Cheese, Dairy, Vegetarian
      Yield: 4 Servings


MMMMM----------------------STARTER CULTURE---------------------------

      2 c  Whole milk
    1/2 c  Buttermilk


MMMMM-----------------------FOR THE CHEESE----------------------------

      6 qt Whole milk (or 4 qt whole
           -milk and 2 qt nonfat)
           Cheese rennet (from health
           -food store or other source:
           -see below)


MMMMM--------------------NECESSARY EQUIPMENT-------------------------

           A thermometer which will
           -register from about 80 F
           -to 120 F in easy-to-read
           -increments
           A large stainless steel or
           -enameled pan (mine holds
           -8 liters)
           A larger pan in which the
           -first one will fit, double
           -boiler style
           A long metal spoon
           A long-bladed knife
           A colander
           Freshly washed cheesecloth
           -or muslin (I use a linen
           -dishcloth)
           A piece of string
           Table salt
           A flat pan, such as a pie
           -pan
           A brick (for use as a
           -weight:  I use the weights
           -from my husband's weight
           -bench)
           Optional:  plain paraffin
           -wax for coating the
           -finished cheese


  (24 hours before cheesemaking:)


  Make the culture.  -- In a 3- to 4-cup jar with a lid, both just
  rinsed with boiling water, combine 2 cups whole milk and 1/2 cup
  buttermilk, both freshly opened.  Cover:  hold at 70-75 degrees F for
  24 hours.


  (The day of cheesemaking:)


  Pour the whole milk for the cheese into an enameled or stainless
  steel pan (not under any circumstances cast iron).  Set the pan on a
  rack, or on top of jar lids, inside the larger pan, making sure
  there's at least an inch of space between the inner and outer pans.
  Warm the milk slowly to 86 degrees F.  Add 1/4 cup of the starter.


  Maintain the temperature at 86 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours.


  Prepare the rennet:  If you're using rennet tablets, crush the
  recommended number of tablets in 1 cup of cold water, and add to the
  milk.  If you're using liquid rennet, mix it in 1/4 cup of water (or
  the amount directed) and add to the milk.  In each case, use the
  amount of rennet recommended for 4 quarts of milk.  (I know, you'd
  think it would be six, but that's what the directions say.)


  Add the rennet to the milk.  Stir carefully for 1 minute:  then
  maintain temperature of 86 degrees for another hour, leaving the pans
  undisturbed as the curd sets.


  At the end of this additional hour, use the long-bladed knife to cut
  the curd, straight down from the top to the bottom of the pan, then
  the same again but crosswise:  then the same again, diagonally.


  Begin increasing the temperature of the curd, taking 30 minutes to
  bring the temperature up to 98-100 degrees F.  As curds firm,
  "circulate" them with spoon every 5-10 minutes.  DO NOT STIR -- just
  push gently.  When ready, a curd dropped 12 inches holds its shape
  and doesn't spatter.



  When curds are properly firmed, line a colander with 3-4 layers washed
  cheesecloth and set the colander in the sink.  Pour the curds and whey
  (the pale, separated-out liquid) into the colander.  Let drain
  briefly, then rinse curd gently with a stream of tepid water.


  Mix salt to taste into the curd (add salt, work it in, check the
  taste, add more if neccessary).  1 1/2 to 1 3/4 tsp. salt seems to be
  plenty for this kind of cheese.  Note that the flavor will be *very*
  bland if no salt is added.


  Pull up the corners of the cheesecloth to make a bag:  twist to make a
  tight ball, and squeeze to force out additional liquid.  Tie the top
  of the bag shut with the string.  Set the ball, with the loose fabric
  spread out on the bottom, in a wide pan.  Set another flat dish on
  top of the cheese, with your brick of weight in it.  Let stand
  overnight in the refrigerator to press and extract liquid.


  After being pressed for 24 hours, the cheese is ready to eat.  It can
  also be stored longer (though most of the time it seems to get eaten
  immediately...).  To store, dry it unwrapped in the refrigerator:
  after 8-10 days it will develop a dry rind of a darkish cream color.
  Or you can wax it -- in this case, as soon as you unwrap the cheese,
  wipe it with acidulated water (1 cup water, 1 tablespoon vinegar) and
  pat dry:  then chill cheese, and dip into melted paraffin wax until
  1/8 inch thick shell builds up.



MMMMM



MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05


      Title: Monterey Jack from Scratch #2
 Categories: Cheese, Dairy, Vegetarian
      Yield: 4 Servings




  Notes on the above:


  (a) For those of you who'll be adding chiles:  they should be added
  after salting the curd.  If using fresh chiles, you should probably
  parboil them (5 minutes or so) to make some kind of attempt at
  sterilizing them. Pickled ones seem not to produce any problems, and
  neither do dried or powdered chiles.  Additionally, the chile flavors
  seem to intensify the longer the cheese is kept.  The problem is
  *keeping* the stuff:  the flavor of fresh homemade Jack cheese is far
  superior to that of the store-bought kind, and you'll find it won't
  last long. NB:  cheese which has been aged 8-10 days in the fridge
  seems to melt better.


  (b)  The trickiest part of all of this is keeping the temperature of
  the milk from jumping too quickly, and keeping it steady for prolonged
  periods. You may want to experiment a little with your double-boiler
  apparatus, with water in the inner pan instead of milk, to see how
  quickly the temperature goes up when you change burner settings on
  your stove.


  Some of the trickiness involves the way temperatures will continue to
  "float" upward even after you've turned the burner down or off.  It is
  important not to let it get out of control:  otherwise the extra heat
  will kill the organisms in the starter.  Residual heat "float" can be
  slowed up by slipping ice cubes into the milk one at a time until the
  heat stabilizes.  Don't overdo this, obviously.


  (c) Equally obviously, vegetarians can substitute vegetarian rennet
  for the non-vegetarian kind.  I usually make mine with vegetarian
  rennet, just for convenience's sake.


  (d) Cleanliness in the utensils is very important in this process:
  everything should be freshly scalded out with near-boiling water
  before you start, to keep alien "bugs" from making lie difficult for
  the friendly ones in the starter.


  (e) For those of you with livestock:  chickens and pigs like the
  leftover whey mixed with meal or feed.


  (f) The quantities given in the recipe make a wheel of cheese weighing
  between 1 1/2 and 1 3/4 pounds.


MMMMM

How to make quark from scratch at home

Here's a quark recipe that we haven't tried. Quark is important in German baking and desserts.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05


      Title: Quark from scratch
 Categories: Dairy
      Yield: 4 Servings




  Real Sourmilk Quark
  2 liter whole milk or low fat milk (1.5%)
  6 tablespoons fresh buttermilk (make shure it
  has live cultures in it and that it is fresh.)


  Heat milk to 30 degree Celsius and stir
  in buttermilk. Do not overstir, 3-4 swirls
  are enough. Take pot of the stove, cover
  with lid and let stand at room temperature,
  until the milk is thick (depending on climate
  1-3 days). The right time to cut the milk is
  reached, when the milk remains firm where it
  is being cut with a knife, it does not run
  together anymore. Now cut the milk with large
  knife 6-8 times in a criss cross fashion.
  After 5 minutes, stir the milk with a wooden
  spoon carefully. Let rest for another 5
  minutes. Spoon the thick milk without distur-
  bing it too much onto a cheesecloth and hang
  up to drip dry to the desired consistancy.
  You will get about 200-300 gramms of Quark for
  each liter of milk. Refrigerate Quark
  immediately at 5 degree Celsius. Use within 3
  days.





  Buttermilk Quark (especially good for desserts)
  2 liter whole milk or low fat milk (1.5%)
  0.5 liter fresh buttermilk (see above)


  Mix milk with buttermilk (no heating required)
  and leave in a covered pot at room temperature
  for about 3-4 days, so that the milk sours.
  Spoon the curdled milk onto cheese cloth and
  drip dry to desired consistancy. Refrigerate
  immediately to 5 degree Celsius. Use within
  3-4 days.



MMMMM