Boeren Kaas vs. Gouda
Hi, Cheese Fans
It seems that the main difference between the above mentioned cheeses are that in the heating/cooking phase the Boeren Kaas is heated to to about 50-55°C where the Gouda is only heated to about 38°C.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Easiest Cheese to Make?
Hi, Cheese Fans
I would have to say from easy to more difficult the order would have to be something like this:
- Cottage Cheese
- Feta
- Mozzarella
- Gouda
- Cheddar
That is for the 5 cheeses mentioned anyway 🙂
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
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Cheese Girl Link!
Hi, Guys
I just got a link from Cheese Girl and I repaid the favour – you can check out her fantastically informative blog at http://cheesaholics.blogs.com/
Thanks, Cheese Girl,
Kind regards,Â
Leon the Milkman
Where did that yoghurt taste come from?
Hi, Yoghurt Fans
When you have a funny taste in your yoghurt it is not always funny 😉
If the factory manufactures an unflavoured yoghurt and then add flavours, the first question should be if the taste is present in the unflavoured yoghurt as well. If it is, then it cannot have come from the flavour or fruit that was added, right?
So now it must come from anything that is added before that point, like the milk itself, the stabilisers, the sugar/sweeteners or base.  Get to every ingredient, and make sure it is from the same batch.  For example, get milk from the same farmer on the same day, etc.
Some of the yoghurt can be used to innoculate autoclaved/UHT/longlife milk and if the same taste is perceived after the milk is set, then the taste is microbial, right?  I say this because if the 3% or so yoghurt with the funny taste was mixed into milk and no taste was evident and after incubation the taste is there, then it must be microbial, I think.
Hope you found this of value.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Factors affecting Somatic Cell Counts (SCC)
Hi, Dairy Farmers
Read this great new article on my www.dairy-info.org site.
Have you had your milk today?
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Cow Dialect?
Hi, Cow fans
Yes, if you’re a real cow lover, you have always known that they have accents just like humans, right?
Confirm it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,1856067,00.html
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Milkman mixes
Hi, Folks
I mixed some calibration standards for dairy composition testing yesterday. We made up a set of ten samples with butterfat ranging from skimmed to 5%.
The whole process starts off with me collecting different milks from nearby farms – by different I mean milk that comes from different races of cows that feed on different feeds.
Once the milk is mixed to give it a range of fat it is tested by internationally accepted methods and distributed to factories to calibrate their testing equipment.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Mozzarella not stretching?
Hi, Cheese lovers
If you have the above problem I would recommend that you taste the milk first to see if you can detect something that way. If the milk is not very sweet – chances are that water was added.  After doing a freezing point to eliminate that possibility, I would do solids, meaning fat and protein in this case.Â
I would also do a phosphatase test to see if the milk was not pasteurized previously, because that would denature the protein so that it will not stretch on a second heating.  You might have pasteurized at too high a temperature yourself as well.
The milk could have a high SCC(somatic cell count) which is an indication of mastitis and this would lower the casein protein in the milk, which would lead to lower yields of cheese and slower, weaker setting of the curd.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Louwrens Smit visits Elsenburg!
Hi, Dairy Friends
Louwrens Smit from our head office gave us a surprise visit this week and helped us to get the Elsenburg Dairy Lab. closer to our ISO 17025 accreditation goal.
Louwrens you are a great guy and thanks for your help!
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Wensleydale cheese is unique.
Hi, Cheese Fans
Having had the privilege to have had real Wensleydale at a London Expo back in 2000, I must agree with this article on protecting uniqueness. Please read it here:
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1692337
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
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