Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dairy

Dairy in Asian Cuisine?

Yiggs — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:23:04 -0800

Why do dairy products have a limited geographic range in Asian cuisine? I've noticed a trend in my (admittedly limited) experience of Asian food: dairy products seem to be rarely featured, if not totally absent, in the cuisines of China, Japan, and some of Southeast Asia. Yet, just over the Himalayas, Indian cuisine has ghee and paneer, and the Mongolians have kumis. This also seems to be correlated with geographic distributions of lactose intolerance, with China, Japan and Southeast Asia having the highest rates in the world.

My initial guess was that, historically, geography prevented cultures with dairy-heavy cuisines from intermingling with dairy-free cultures - either the Himalayas or the Gobi Desert may have limited the movement of cattle into mainland China. But China seems to have plenty of opportunities to intermingle with other cultures, be it the Silk Road, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty or even later trading with the Portuguese or Dutch. Why would the use of dairy products - which, if Wikipedia is to be trusted, greatly increases the amount of calories extracted from livestock - not be adopted by these cultures?

Cream, Whey and What?

LOLAttorney2009 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:45:03 -0800

What sort of dairy product did I inadvertently create? Bad housekeeping details under the fold... queasy stomachs beware! Yes, I'm one of those folks who leaves scary foods in the fridge until I get the courage up to deal with them.

In this particular case, I purchased a quart of minimally-processed (read: low-temp pasteurized, non-homogenized) whole milk from a local vendor in ...oh, let's say it was August but maybe it was actually April.... Anyway, the intent was to make cheese from said milk while it was fresh. That never happened but I did open the bottle once to use about a quarter cup for a recipe. After that, the milk remained, undisturbed, in my fridge until this evening when I finally decided to take care of it (I needed the bottle, otherwise I would have tossed it months ago).

The milk had separated into three levels in the bottle: the top was cream-colored and thick-looking; middle was sort of a beige but clear liquid; bottom was... milky-white. When I poured it out, the top, chunky cream stuff melted like butter under the hot water. The beige liquid just disappeared. The bottom white stuff... was a solid, like a cheese. That solid was soft and melted like mozzarella under the hot water.

Surprisingly, none of the stuff smelled particularly "BAD" - there was a mild dairy-cow-farm smell to the stuff.

I'll guess that the milk separated into the following:

Top: curdled/spoiled cream (would this melt like butter?)
Middle: whey
Bottom: cheese of some kind

Is this a way of making some sort of cheese? What kind? My question is purely out of curiosity; I don't intend to ever do this again nor did I keep any of the milk product for tasting purposes.

(For the record, this was the only disgusting thing in my fridge for the last few months. Really! [Unless you're like my brother and consider mushrooms disgusting...])

Can an allergy start at 40?

LittlePumpkin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:17:54 -0800

Can food allergies develop at forty years old? In my case, I'm getting hives (on my arm or hand) when i eat anything with dairy in it -- this has never happened before.

Do bacteria survive freezing and thawing?

peachfuzz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:39:32 -0800

Will frozen buttermilk thaw with its active cultures intact and...well...active? Ditto for yogurt. I've been experimenting with making cheese the semi-old school way, using buttermilk and/or yogurt with active cultures to provide starter bacteria for acidification. Awesome! Except: I can only find active culture buttermilk in quart containers, I only have time for messing around with cheese on the weekends, and I only need a quarter cup of buttermilk at a time. Lots of buttermilk waste, since the bacteria are only really kicking for a few days.

So - can I freeze it while it's still good and active and thaw as needed? Texture changes don't matter to me, all I need is the bacteria to come through the freezing process able to do their work. My plan is to freeze in quarter cup amounts so I just thaw what I need.

Googling has provided conflicting information. I do cook with buttermilk so it's not REALLY going to waste - but really, there are only so many biscuits and cakes and ice creams a two-person household can go through every week!

Dial M for Acidophilus

boots — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:00:59 -0800

Has there ever been a documented case of death by drowning in yogurt?

Dairy Spoilage Question, or should I Mooooove on?

dithmer — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:19:23 -0800

There's a recipe I love doing - chocolate eclair cake - it's pretty much graham crackers, frozen whipped topping mixed with prepared (with milk) instant pudding mix, and the chocolate top is cocoa, sugar, a little bit of milk, and butter. This weekend, I'll be taking an 8 hour train to NYC, then have about another 3 hours to kill, then I'll be at a fridge for the night, then the next day, I'll be walking around NYC for about 8 hours, and then delivered to the house of the person the cake is for, with another fridge. So aside from the pain in the ass of carrying it around... am I risking major major dairy spoilage? I've left this cake sitting out on a table at work all day, but this seems a bit different. Thank you!

...I bet you thought I was going to say "Got Milk?"

EmpressCallipygos — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:42:02 -0800

Need lots of recipes that use a lot of milk, and not a lot much else.... So, I find myself with a lot of excess milk (weekend brunch party + the friend who offered to bring milk thinking I said I needed two GALLONS, and not two HALF-gallons, + lots of my guests suddenly falling sick at the last minute). Fortunately my roommate is also having people over today, and may kill a quart or so that way, but...still, that leaves a good gallon plus, and I'd like to knock things down to a much more manageable amount.

Ice cream I know I could make, or chowders or bisques...any other ideas? I'd prefer not to make something that would require I run out and get a lot of other pricey ingredients; I have a fairly decently-stocked pantry (some of this will go into a fish chowder with some fish I just got, in fact), but assume that we're just working with basics here (no lobster bisque, for instance; I'd have to get the lobster). Cheese is also out as I think it's ultra-homogenized milk, and that won't work for cheesemaking.

thanks.

Farm and dairy tours near NYC

HotPatatta — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:33:27 -0800

Where can I go to take a farm tour, pick fruit, or tour a dairy that is within a 2-hour drive of NYC? I want to escape from the city for a day and get a taste of country life. I'd like to visit a dairy and see how cheeses are made, how milk is processed, and maybe even milk a cow. A small farm that's not so mechanized and massive would be ideal. If that's not possible, I want to visit an orchard, berry field, or vegetable farm and pick something. If both of those scenarios aren't possible, is there an animal farm I can visit?

Dairy-free frosting alternatives, please.

messylissa — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:44:09 -0800

What are some non-dairy alternatives to cake frosting? Step-daughter's birthday is coming up, and I want to make her this cake. However, she is allergic to milk. According to her mom, she is "not just allergic to dairy products and lactose, she is allergic to the milk proteins."

Because of some messy, messy divorce issues (see past posts), her mom won't give us a detailed list of what she can and can't eat, but we do know that she can have baked goods, like cake and cookies, and things with some butter in them (e.g. mashed potatoes), because her mom often sends those along as snacks.

So, to be safe, what kind of frosting can I put on this cake that will be fun and edible? Normally we substitute things like peanut butter, but that would be disgusting on a cake. I'm willing to make some sort of icing, but I want to err on the side of caution, and not make anything that includes an overload of butter.

A yummy slice of gluten-free casein-free joy-free pie?

mjao — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:29:06 -0800

My boyfriend has started a GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) diet. This is following a recent diagnosis of Adult Aspergers. Please help us. He is interested in the theory that gluten and dairy have a depressing, opiate like effect in autistic people. He also says since cutting out these foods he has no stomach discomfort (he regularly has some kind of tummy issues - common to autistic people, I hear).

The diet often makes him quite miserable to be around, with headaches and the expected side effects -- he is quite skinny to begin with so I can't help but think he is missing out on some crucial nutrition here. I (hope I) have convinced him to visit a nutritionist soon.

Ask Mefi, you can help by pointing me in the direction of any reputable information about the whole GFCF thing. I see a lot of crap on the web about this. Where's the scientifically sound information and who can I trust?

Also, good recipes? Recipe blogs? Ideas of what he can eat? Regular recipes that can be tweaked to be made GFCF?

We especially need ideas for quick snacks, stuff to have on hand, take to work, or offer a pick-me-up? He often gets caught out in a state where he is really starved, weak, and too tired to THINK of what foods he could eat ... I ruffle through the pantry trying to think of simple things I can make him, but nothing seems to interest him (he's a picky eater). Then he just gets even more tired and miserable.

If you're wondering, the plan is to try this out for as long as possible, perhaps around 6 months to a year (apparently it can take that long for the body to "recover" from gluten?) He also has an appointment with an allergist but there's a long waiting list so that's not til February.

On a slightly related note, I'd appreciate links to resources or web forums for partners of people with Aspergers. I am finding this harder to cope with than I thought I would. :) Thanks.

Simple cheeses that can be made in a day?

amanda — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:30:20 -0800

Cheesefilter! Any home cheesemakers out there? What simple cheeses can be made in half a day? I've made mozzarella and ricotta and now I'd like to make another quick cheese. Any suggestions? I'm doing this with a group so it's been fun to just gather the ingredients and spend a day doing the cheese. However, I'm stymied as to the next cheese. Everything I've looked up seems to require many hours of setting and/or many hours of draining. I'd like something I can make and eat immediately.

I can get fresh goat milk as well as simple-pasteurized whole milk!

Casein Allergy Solutions?

Texasjake987 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:01:20 -0800

My girlfriend has recently formed as casein allergy as a young adult. She is not "lactose intolerant". Are there any solutions to dealing with this outside of cutting dairy and other casein rich foods out of her diet? more inside... While apparently common mostly in younger children, this allergy has afflicted her recently in her early twenties. Typically the common solution applies to the former demographic and involves removing casein from the diet, and gradually allowing your body to form a tolerance to it. However, because she's already been exposed to it for twenty+ years, doctors have simply recommended to just not consume casein. This is pretty tough, as it is extremely present in dairy foods. Red wine also gives the same allergenic reactions as well, and I recently read somewhere that casein is used as a binding agent in red wine.
Her reaction to casein manifests itself in her lungs and chest, causing wheezing and coughing not unlike the symptoms of asthma.
She typically tries to avoid taking antibiotics/medicine/etc... if there are other natural alternatives available. It would be nice if certain types of teas, herbs, spices, supplements or vitamins would help to address the problem.

So... are there any remedies for this allergy that anyone knows of that may help allow her to slowly leak more dairy, etc. into her diet?

Lactose intolerant folks have tablets they can take to allow them to eat dairy for a short window of time, or take other supplements....
is there anything similar for this case?

Smooth-scrolling PDFs?

cgomez — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:33:04 -0800

What is the best way to scan documents so that they scroll well in OS X? Regardless of which scanner I use, I seem to produce PDFs that scroll/change pages very slowly in OS X, and as a result, applications that use OS X's PDF rendering engine. Is there a particular application or settings I can use in Acrobat Professional that will lead to black and white document scans that scroll "like butter"? I'd like it to be 300 dpi or so just for document clarity.

I'm linking to two documents that are similar in content but perform differently.

Smooth-scrolling: http://rocketsilence.com/mefi/greenstein_pols157_example.pdf
Not so much scan: http://rocketsilence.com/mefi/finstat_deckers_example_118.pdf

Is goon (box wine) made from fish eggs?

Black_Umbrella — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:15:53 -0800

Does goon (box wine) actually contain fish eggs? I have been in Australia for a while now and everyone has been telling me that goon (box wine) is made of fish eggs.

What is the truth to this? My current goon says that fish, eggs and dairy products are used in the production of it. I have heard from some sources that is used as a "finishing agent", what ever that means.

Can some one shed some light on fish eggs and goon?

Los Angeles-area sustainably raised, grass-fed, etc. dairy?

rednikki — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:33:58 -0800

Been a lifelong carnivore. Went vegan recently because factory meat farming, factory dairy, etc. just appall me. Unfortunately, since I'm allergic to soy and corn, a vegan diet is very limiting. I'd like to reintroduce dairy, and maybe even the occasional poultry/meat, but I am not comfortable with it not being sustainably raised. Now let me define terms. From all the research I've done, "free range" isn't actually much freer than normal factory farming (see Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" for more, or ask and I'll unpack this for you). Everything I've read about the treatment of animals in the dairy industry makes me physically ill. Goat milk/cheese seems to come from more sustainable conditions, probably just as a matter of scale.

So what do I want? Truly free-range animals, ones that actually DO wander around outside. Birds and cows that get to eat grass. A farm that does not lock a newborn dairy cow into a teeny-tiny cage with no contact with any other animals for the first six weeks of its life.

I'm doubting that I can find anything like this near LA. Maybe the Santa Monica Farmer's Market? Any info would be appreciated. Done research, but am coming up blank. And, unfortunately, my apartment complex does not allow chickens or cows, so raising it myself is not currently an option.

Where to find shelf-stable dairy cream?

cuddles.mcsnuggy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:35:17 -0800

Is there such a thing as powdered or jarred, non-perishable, real dairy cream for coffee that never needs refrigeration? I love my morning pot of coffee, and have used non-dairy creamers for years. But the fake stuff is just so.... fake. And I'd like to cut down my consumption of sugar & highly processed chemical-foods. I really enjoy real dairy cream but have no reliable way of keeping it fresh in my office environment. (Communal fridge is gross & regularly burgled, mini fridge with Peltier cooler under my desk doesn't stay cold enough). I don't think English clotted cream in a jar would work, and even if it did it needs refrigeration after opening. So has anyone ever heard of dried or otherwise preserved full-fat real cream that I can keep in a desk drawer, even after the package is open?

I'm not interested in nonfat dried milk powder (bleah), those single-serve tiny containers of ultra pasteurized half & half (tasteless), or canned condensed milk (yuck). Just cream. Extensive google searches have been unsuccessful. Suggestions of mail order products or storebought both welcome. Thanks in advance!

For the love of Greek yogurt

cuddles.mcsnuggy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:00:31 -0800

Anyone know where to find a very, very fine mesh chinois or strainer? I seek one that will hold about a half gallon of liquid with a mesh similar in "fine-ness" (is that a word?) to those metal coffee filters. I've been looking around for the perfect strainer to make Greek yogurt but am coming up empty. I usually make 1/2 gallon at a time. After my milk is cultured & set I will strain away the whey to thicken the end product -- which is fantastic btw and I will never go back to "yoplait" type grocery store yogurt -- but I digress. I've been using paper coffee filters and the old fashioned muslin-in-a-sieve method. They work okay, but are very messy. I'd rather not have to sanitize & re-wash fabric every time or tear open & overlap the paper filters (so they fit that much volume). Both methods seem wasteful of paper, time, and/or energy. I hope to find a large strainer/chinois with a superfine mesh that I don't need to line with anything. The standard mesh I've found on products on amazon, cooking.com, williams-sonoma etc. is too "loose" to work for straining dairy without being lined. I think a mesh that's just like what's used in metal coffee filters like this would be perfect. There's a "yogurt strainer" gadget out there but it only makes 1 cup & isn't what I'm seeking. FWIW I don't have a southeast Asian/Indian or Greek grocery store in my town which might carry such a device and I've looked in all department stores to no avail. An online vendor would be ideal. Many thanks in advance for suggestions!

Is congealed milk solids the norm for glass-bottle milk?

shivohum — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:35:07 -0800

I bought some Meadowbrook Farms whole milk in a glass bottle a couple of days ago. Expiration date: Jan 21. I noticed today when I opened it and poured milk out that some of the milk solids had congealed on the inside of the top of the neck of the glass jar (and some of that came out with the poured-out milk). Is this a sign of rottenness, or of some kind of extremely wholesome milk? I can't tell from the smell.

How do I tell how much casein (or dairy protein) is in a food product?

letahl — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:58:56 -0800

How do I tell how much casein (or dairy protein) is in a food product? I've been a dairy fan my entire life. I gave up casein about a month ago as an experiment regarding a stiff joint. I'm not sure if it helped the joint, but I've seen benefits in other ways. I'd like to keep on a restricted casein program.

I've been avoiding all products with casein, checking the labels and such. Since I'm not entirely allergic (or perhaps, at all, it's just a theory), I would like to know how to check how much casein is in a product. I.e., if soy cheese has minute amounts of casein in it compared to regular cheese, I might like to have this on occasion. Same with yogurt.

I haven't found any such numbers via google; perhaps I am not searching the right key terms. Ideally, I would like to see a chart, how much casein is in milk, cheeses, yogurt, soy products, snack foods (hot chocolate and microwave popcorn), etc.

Does anyone know how to check the amount of casein in various food products?

Thank you, manimals!

[Here's the background to the theory: A week or two ago, after a few weeks of zero casein, I figured I'd have some pizza ("sure why not I've been good") and I got ill. About thirty to sixty minutes after I ate, I started to feel "out of it" mentally/visually, and then my stomach cramped up very badly. The cramps continued at least until I went to sleep an hour or two later. My theory is maybe I am mildly allergic to casein and never knew it before. I've heard of mild allergies getting masked by addiction, so that's my hypothesis. I put this info in here to welcome other hypotheses.]

She's ben invited to a yak-themed party....

min — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:32:05 -0800

Is there a way to procure yak milk in the United States? A local source in New York City would be ideal, but if the milk producer ships to the United States it doesn't matter.

I am asking on behalf of a friend who would like to make Tibetan butter tea.

Finding nonhomogenized milk in a city?

cmiller — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 13:25:11 -0800

I live in a medium-sized city in the US. Where can I find cow milk that's not homogenized? I want to make fresh mozzarella cheese, and homogenization destroys some essential quality of the milk. Pasteurization is fine, and I prefer all the germs killed, so I am not looking for "raw milk", which is often illegal or at least shady.

I live in Orlando, Florida. That's large enough that there are no dairy farms nearby, but small enough that it's not obvious to me where I can find the right kind of milk.

To make the answers interesting to everyone and not be Orlando specific, is there a general source of such milk?

Creme de la creme

textilephile — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:08:04 -0800

The cream that floats to the top of non-homogenized milk is extremely heavy, almost as thick as butter. Is it sold separately? If so, what is it called? It is far, far thicker than heavy cream. I want to mix it with jam and spread it on things. I discovered it when I poured a bottle of creamline milk, but there's just one small glop in a whole quart of milk and I don't want to get ten quarts of milk just to make a little bowl of blackberry supercream spread. Thanks!

Enlighten me about dairy, I don't want to be ignorant about my consumption!

stormygrey — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 14:41:26 -0800

What's the deal with dairy? A quick search here and at sparkpeople, confirms that a lot of people these days are eliminating dairy for health reasons. In general, that's all they say, "its healthier". But why? I adore dairy and have been on medicine for a decade that impedes calcium absorbtion, so I eat a lot to mitigate that. So besides the fact that high fat is obviously not the best, why is a dairy free diet better?

BTW, I have seen all the PETA stuff, so I know about that side, I am asking about health.

Parvenoff?

escabeche — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:19:09 -0800

What non-dairy "sour cream" works best in a cooked sauce? In particular, how would you make beef stroganoff without using any dairy products? "Hamburger stroganoff" is a favorite comfort dish of my childhood. My wife doesn't eat milk and meat together, which makes this dish (ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, and sour cream) pretty impossible. But I just found a promising-looking non-dairy "cream" of mushroom soup (Imagine brand) and thought I'd give it a try. The sour cream seems a problem, though. I bought a container of Tofutti Sour Supreme, but to tell the truth it looks both unpleasant and unhealthy. Googling suggests lots of vegan sour cream substitutes (mostly involving sticking silken tofu in the food processor), but it's not clear to me which, if any, will melt into a meat sauce and make it "creamy." Help me, non-dairy MeFites!

P.S. One acceptable answer is "non-dairy stroganoff is a horrible idea, you should use real sour cream and fake meat crumble instead."

Any kid-friendly allergen-free foods?

unknowncommand — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:09:04 -0800

Are there any companies that sell allergen-free foods geared towards children (e.g. snacks, cookies, kiddie meals, lunchables, and the like)? Dairy (including whey and casein) and nut-allergies especially. Specific products are okay, but I'm interested in companies (even Mom&Pop stuff) or divisions or lines of products. USA if it matters.