Brutkey

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
food, dairy

Today's milk experiment: ryazhenka, a Ukrainian baked milk yogurt. I left a pot of milk in the oven at ~200F for 24 hours. It got...super weird. But delicious! It's caramelized, but not really sweet. (I ate some warm on cereal for breakfast - amazing).

Step 2 is to culture it into yogurt. It's got a bizarre, jello-y consistency (recipe is for cow milk, so I'm not sure if it's weird b/c goat milk?) We will see what it turns into...

Recipe from Milk into Cheese by David Asher

A blue ceramic pot with a crusty, baked layer of milk The same ceramic pot, now with the baked crusty milk layer removed, and a ladle picking up some of the baked, caramel coloured milk, highlighting its weird jello-like consistency. Jello-y baked caramel-coloured milk, almost like curds, floating in caramel-coloured clear whey, in 2 large jars sitting on a table. The same jars after adding kefir starter, so the whey the curds are floating in is now cloudy white.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
food, dairy

The curds and whey never really went back together (maybe I was supposed to stir it more thoroughly after adding culture?) After sitting in a warm place for a few hours, I decided to put the curd into a cheesecloth and hang it for a while to turn it into a yogurt cheese kind of thing. It smells amazing! Like a toasted caramel dessert of some kind!

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
food, dairy

Ok, it looks absolutely disgusting. But it smells and tastes amazing after draining off the whey and salting it! Like caramelized chevre! Maybe I should make a cheesecake with it?

I added some of the yummy-smelling caramelized whey to sourdough pancake batter for dinner (yes dinner, I already know that today is going to be Quite A Day so we're having pancakes for dinner. Sidenote: I almost never plan dinner at the beginning of the day, hoping this will make everything go better)

Looking down into a metal bowl of rather gross-looking brown chunky goo. I promise it smells and tastes amazing!
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
food, dairy

Ended up making waffles with the sourdough/caramelized whey batter instead, and DAMN those were amazing waffles!

(I meant to put some of the caramelized chevre on, too but totally forgot. Now I am too full.)

((Yes... my kids and I had waffles for dinner at like 5pm. I have orchestra rehearsal after animal chores, and my partner has parent-teacher conferences until late, so that was the only way tonight was going to work))

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
food, dairy

Did the best thing possible with that caramelized cheese: added sugar and folded in whipped cream, and put it on top of an oreo crust. AMAZING. Like caramel+cheesecake but with way more cultured, savoury taste perfectly blended in. Wowwwww.

Looking down on a small, square glass pan that is full of caramel-coloured cheesecake.