So far, I’ve mostly bought store bought products, including half n half (my wife likes that better than milk or cream in her coffee, doesn’t use a lot, and it seems to work for her), and heavy whipping cream (which I use for my coffee and also for whipped cream and various recipes). I buy a little sour cream, not a lot. And I buy some cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and cheddar cheese. Those are sorta “staples” that I have around most of the time. Some I use a little, some a lot. I seldom have whole milk around.
But, I have a good local source for excellent quality whole milk. It’s minimally pasteurized to make it legal for them to sell here for human consumption, but that’s it. It’s not homogenized. It’s pretty good stuff. (The people selling it don’t sell cream, they make their own butter and I suspect they use their cream for that. I’m still a fan of Kerrygold butter, though.)
So I’ve been considering whether I should ditch at least some of the other things I’ve been buying and maybe start “making” some of them just from that whole milk. The cream is kind of a “gimme”. Put it in a jar or pot and skim it off the top. Half n half or something similar would also be fairly easy in that I could get the last of the cream and no doubt get a little milk with it. Maybe not be exactly half and half, but close enough.
After that, though, I’m questioning what I would do with the rest of the milk. I’m guessing that the cream and half n half would probably amount to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the whole milk, but that’s a guess. One possibility might be to make some Greek yogurt. We buy that now but there is very little to making it at home. Pouring off the whey gets rid of many of the carbs.
I’m a little reluctant to get it all started without a plan. I don’t want to be wasteful. And even though the milk isn’t way overpriced, it’s still not cheap. I wouldn’t want to throw away parts of it that I could be using.
I’ve never made mozzarella cheese before but when I buy it in a block for fathead bread, it’s a block of part skim. Would that milk left over from taking the half n half and cream be about what mozzarella would be made from?
Anyway, I wondered if some of you may already be doing something similar. I suspect many don’t have time, and I understand that. A very few may even have a dairy cow or goat of your own and do this stuff all the time. (I’m not there yet, can’t say I’m ready to start milking a cow again. Did that for enough years to know I don’t get vacations and holidays from milking twice a day, only when she goes dry, and then I don’t get milk.) So, if some of you have already been here and figured it out, please do share a little of the details. I’m trying to decide how far I want to take this.
Thanks!