It's the Milk, Stupid

I just finished another batch of Camembert. I've now done enough of these to know that they are consistently coming out well. Some of my earliest efforts were delicious and developed the surface mold well- but the interior was excessively runny, sometimes to the point of being nearly liquid. My more recent efforts have been especially successful.

The improvements that I have enjoyed recently are clearly a result of the milk I've been using. Friend, fellow blogger, and tea connoisseur extraordinaire UrSpo sometimes refers to especially high end tea as being made from tender young leaves plucked by virgins at 3 AM by the light of the full moon. My current milk supply has a similar feel to it. It's raw milk- whole milk that has been neither Pasteurized nor homogenized. The cream rises to the top of the containers that it's stored in. The dairy cattle are Gurnsey Guernsey cows that are raised organically on an Amish farm in Wisconsin (I need to determine if saying organic is redundant if you identify the farm as Amish).

Most store-bought milk is from Holsteins. Gurnsey Guernsey milk has a much higher butterfat content that Holstein milk, and gives the cheese a particularly rich texture, flavor, and yellow color. I noticed one other difference when I made my most recent cheese. The whey is less clear than I am used to. Sometimes this can mean poor separation of curds and whey, but the curds were excellent this time.

With my latest batch of Camembert, I learned that the changed appearance of the whey reflects an additional benefit of this milk. By reheating the whey after I've poured it off of the curds, I obtained a very nice yield of ricotta (literally "recooked") cheese. I'm so happy to have this new, reliable source of raw milk!