Ricotta Ranch Dressing

May has been unusually cool and rainy, so our lettuce hasn't bolted yet!

I've been experimenting with making salad dressings for awhile. My goal is to make them from ingredients I commonly have on hand. I haven't come up with anything particularly noteworthy, but I keep on trying. Are they even necessary? I don't know, but they sure do dress up a salad, and we like them for a veggie dip too.

Ranch used to be a staple at our house, until the ingredient list on the bottled brands convinced me I no longer want to buy it. Homemade recipes for Ranch dressing call for mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk. The problem is, these aren't ingredients I keep around. I recently stocked up on coconut oil mayonnaise (75¢ a pint!), but I don't buy or make sour cream, and my buttermilk is from butter making, not the cultured kind used in salad dressings. Since I'm not inclined to go to a lot of trouble making individual ingredients for only one recipe, I'd given up on one of my favorite salad dressings.

The other day I made a soft creamy ricotta from my mozzarella whey and wondered why it wouldn't be a good base for a salad dressing. I experimented with an idea, and both Dan and I agree it's a keeper! I won't miss store-bought Ranch any more!

I'm posting the recipe here, so I'll remember what it is. With whey ricotta, skimmed milk kefir, and no mayo, it could be almost zero fat. With the kefir, it's probiotic! My measurements are in parenthesis, but this could be adapted for any amounts and taste preferences.

Ricotta Ranch Salad Dressing

Equal parts of:

• ricotta (that recipe here) (¾ cup)
• kefir (and that recipe here) (¾ cup)

To taste:

• Himalayan salt (1 tsp)
• black pepper (¼ tsp)
• onion powder (1 tsp)
• garlic powder (⅛ tsp)
• parsley flakes (sprinkle)
• pickle juice (1 tbsp)

Blend all ingredients until creamy. Add more kefir if needed for the desired consistency. Pour into a recycled salad dressing bottle, and refrigerate until serving. This would also make an excellent veggie or chip dip.

Future experiments:

• try other seasonings (like my dehydrated cucumber flakes)
• try substituting chèvre for the ricotta (worked well!)

Parting shot: Here's what I served that salad with. . . .

Ricotta gnocchi and meatballs in pizza sauce sprinkled with
grated fresh mozzarella. The links will take you to the recipes.

A yummy meal (if I do say so myself).

Ricotta Ranch Dressing © May 2020 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Year Around Milk

We don't drink much milk, but sometimes nothing
beats an ice cold glass with freshly baked cookies.

One question I had when we first started producing our own food, was how to have a year around supply of everything. In the beginning I canned, froze, or dehydrated all the vegetables, fruits, and eggs I could. As we shifted toward a more seasonal model of living, I began to build my menus around what was producing well rather than what was stocked in the pantry.

This shift in eating habits shifted other things as well. By that time I had learned what grows well for me and what doesn't. Initially I wanted to grow a large variety of foods, but by focusing more on seasonal eating I realized I didn't have to grow dozens of different fruits and vegetables, because our variety is seasonal. Just about the time we're tired of one thing, it's done and something else is ready to eat.

I used to freeze and dehydrate a lot of eggs, but now I use
them if I've got them, or plan meals without them if I don't.

I can have variety in other ways too. For example, I save both watermelon and cantaloupe seeds, but we can only eat so much melon. Rather than devote a large amount of garden space to growing both, I grow watermelons one year and cantaloupes the next. Planting every other year also works well for things that tend to cross-pollinate, such as cantaloupes and honeydews.

I still preserve foods, but by focusing more on extending my gardening season, I can preserve less, which is a time and energy saver. Even so, I combine my biennial plantings with my food preservation plan. One year I grow enough green beans to can two years worth. The next year I grow enough black turtle beans to dry two years worth. These space and work savers help me manage my time and energy better.

And then there's milk. The traditional way of preserving milk is as cheese. It's a rare person who doesn't love cheese, after all, and most folks like to take a break from milking. However, fresh milk is one thing I would really like a daily supply of. Why? Two reasons. Most importantly, feeding my kefir. Secondly, because I find it easier to make fresh cheeses to eat as we need them, rather than going through the business of waxing, aging, and storing them (things challenging to do in our hot humid climate).

Still waiting...

So what are the options for having a year around supply of milk? Dairy animals require a two-month break at the end of their pregnancies to let them put all their nutrients into their soon-to-be-born young. One way to keep the milk supply going is to stagger breeding and birthing. In fact, that's what I tried to do this year. Last year Anna was bred a little later than the others, in hopes she'd still be giving milk while they are dry. Alas, she's pretty much dried up herself now, with less than a month until my first due date. So that's an experiment that didn't quite work out as I hoped.
 
Anna gave me milk for about seven months, but some does don't dry up as quickly. Some will produce milk for as long as two years or more. These individuals make good candidates for breeding every other year. With an extended lactation, it's possible to "milk through" the breeding and kidding season without taking a break. Some Kinders are capable of this, but none of my goats so far has had this trait.

The other option for me would be to breed twice a year. Once for spring kiddings, and six months later for fall kids. Most goat babies are born in spring after a fall breeding. Kinders are aseasonal breeders, however, which means they can conceive and kid any time of year. If I bred half my girls in fall and the other half in spring, it seems I'd have a better chance at having year around milk.

Jessie, Cinnamon, Anna, Violet, Ellie, and Daisy

So that's the plan, assuming no one gives birth to quads and needs all her milk to feed them. I have one yearling doe that will probably be ready to breed late this spring. If that works out, maybe next year I'll achieve my goal for year around milk.

Year Around Milk © Jan 2018 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

A Tale of Two Fetas

In my last cheesemaking post I mentioned how even small changes in the making of a cheese can make a difference in the results. Here's an example of two fetas. The photos below were taken after each was pressed and sliced. They look like very different cheeses!

Feta #1

Feta #2

Quite a difference, eh? Both are made from my goat milk, following the same recipe with only a few differences. First, here's the recipe.

Feta

Cheese:

• 1 gallon raw goat milk
• ¼ cup starter
• 1 regular dose rennet
• cheese salt

Warm the milk to 90°F (32°C), stir in starter, and incubate for one hour. Gently stir in rennet and let sit one hour or until clean break. Cut curds into ¾-inch pieces. Slowly stir the curds for 30 to 60 minutes. Let curds settle and pour off whey. Save 1 quart of the whey for the brine.

Strain the curds. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp salt and mix. Let stand 10 minutes for the salt to pull out some of the whey. Pack curds into a cheese press. Flip cheese several times. Once it's cooled, removed from press and cut into one-inch slices. Salt the slices and leave on cheese rack to dry. Flip them a couple of times to dry evenly. When dry, pack on crock or glass jar and cover with brine.

Brine:

• 1 quart fresh whey
• ¼ cup salt

Dissolve salt in whey. Cover and let age during the feta drying process. Pour over cheese, making sure to cover it.

Age the brined cheese slices at less than 50°F (12°C) for least two weeks.

Now, here are the differences in my two fetas.

Feta #1

• whey as a starter culture
• heat maintained at 90°F (32°C)
• light pressure in the cheese press

Feta #2

• kefir as a starter culture
• heated (accidentally) to 100°F (37.7°C)
• firmer pressure in the cheese press

Interesting, isn't it? For each feta I salted the slices, allowed them to air dry, placed each in it's own jar of brine, and allowed to age in the fridge.

Taste test results?

Top: Feta #1; Bottom: Feta #2.

Dan was recruited as my taste tester. He thought the biggest difference was in texture, but the flavor was very similar and very good.

Feta is traditionally a salty cheese, so I add no extra salt when I use it in cooking. We've been enjoying it in salads, scrambled eggs, and omelets.

Homegrown salad

Do you see why cheesemaking is so challenging on the one hand but so intriguing on the other? It's a good thing I'm not a perfectionist! The potential for subtle but delicious nuances is endless!

Feta #1 stored in herbed olive oil with fresh sprigs
of thyme and rosemary. After we eat the cheese
the oil will be used for salads and sautéeing.

As Dan says, how could anyone ever get bored with homesteading?

A Tale of Two Fetas © Nov 2017 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

New Adventures in Cheese Making

The other day I made the last of my mozzarella for the season (need enough in the freezer for pizza while the girls are dry during the last two months of their pregnancies). I also finished up the last of my liquid rennet and was ready to try my new Walcoren powdered. It was time for a new adventure in cheese making! For that, I wanted to start working my way through this book by David Asher. ➘

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking

Why this book? Because I'm a self-sufficiency wannabe. That means I look for ways to make cheese without having to continually buy cheese cultures. My first cheeses were based on a recipe that I called my Little House on the Prairie Cheese. I used whey as my starter culture instead of a meso or thermophilic culture. Those first cheeses were okay, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with them. This book uses kefir, which I make regularly, so it perked my interest.

To start, I wanted a firm, ready-to-eat cheese that I could slice for sandwiches or burgers, or grate to use in eggs or fajitas. For that it made sense to start with the basic rennet curd cheese (chapter 13), because the author says it's the foundational cheese for most other cheeses: fresh, brine-aged (feta), pasta filata (stretched cheeses such as mozzarella), white-rinded, blue, alpine, washed rind, washed curd, or cheddared. That's a lot of variations from one basic process, so it seemed like the place to start.

Here are the notes from my cheese journal:

• 1 gallon *skimmed raw goat milk
• 1/4 cup freshly drained kefir
• 1/32 tsp powdered calf rennet (WalcoRen)
• 1 tsp non-chlorinated water

For 1/32 teaspoon rennet I used my smidgen spoon. 

8:30 a.m. - set milk to warm slowly on stove
9:30 a.m. - milk temp 90°F (32°C), stir in kefir
10:00 a.m. - mix rennet in water, set aside to dissolve
10:30 a.m. - stir rennet solution into milk. Let sit & keep at 90°F (32°C)
11:30 a.m. - clean break, cut curd, stir occasionally (85° reheat to 90°)
12:30 p.m. - let curds settle
12:35 p.m. - pour off whey and drain. Pack curds into molds

Hand packed into two cheese molds. (Recipe calls for three.)

The instructions said the curds would knit together as they sat in the molds. I was a tad dubious how well that would happen without weighting them, but at that point I had an errand to run, so off I went. A couple hours later I was able to remove them from the molds.

Okay, not bad. Not smooth, but firm.

They were firm enough to handle - no crumbling. I was impressed. I rubbed each with canning salt. They were covered with a dish cloth and allowed to air dry for about 24 hours, flipping occasionally.

I was very curious when I sliced the first one and was pleased with the texture.

They were firmer than I expected, especially for the curds only being hand packed. And the cheese had good flavor, even without aging! A keeper!

The other thing that is different with this recipe, is that the curds weren't "cooked." That's usually what's done after the curd is cut in the pot. The temperature of the curds in whey is typically raised to anywhere between 100°F (38°C) and 110°F (43°C) depending on the desired result. This recipe maintained a curd temperature at 90°F (32°C).

The final test was the melting test.

Grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Yum!

It melted beautifully and made a delicious sandwich, especially with a slice of homegrown tomato! Definitely a keeper. The only thing I will do differently next time is to put all the curds into one mold. I'd like the cheese to be sandwich size and fit on a slice of bread.

I'm really excited about this new direction for my cheesemaking. I have quite a bit of milk right now, so it's a good time to experiment.

*NOTE: Practically all of my homemade cheeses are made from skimmed milk. Not because I especially want it that way, but because I use my own raw goat milk which is not homogenized. Goat cream is slower to rise than cows cream, but by the time I'm ready to make cheese, it is ready to skim.** This has been one of my cheese making challenges, because whole milk cheeses are tastier than skim milk cheeses. David's book explains that once the cream has separated from the milk it can't be reincorporated to make a whole milk cheese. The cream comes out with the whey! I've had that happen and now understand why my old time cheese recipes, such as in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, often call for adding that morning's milk to the previous day's milking. Their cheeses would have been partially whole milk cheeses.

**NOTE ON THE NOTE: I have to mention that the milk from my Kinders give me more cream than either my Nubians or Nigerian Dwarfs did. On top of that, their skimmed milk is creamer than either of the other two breeds. Skimmed Nubian and ND milk never made good coffee creamer, but my skimmed Kinder milk does! (Just another reason anyone considering goats should consider getting Kinders!)

New Adventures in Cheese Making © Oct 2017

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Living with Living Foods

There are quite a few ways to classify foods. There are breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods, finger foods, picnic foods, and snacks. There are fruits, vegetables, starches, dairy, beverages, etc., even protein, fats, and carbohydrates. But also, I tend to think of them in a broader and more philosophical sense, in reference to their state of being. My bottom line categories for foods are: real, artificial, live, dead, and living.

Real foods, to me, are pure and unadulterated. They are foods in their natural state, or with all natural ingredients. They are foods made with ingredients that an average person could grow or make for themselves, if they chose. Real foods do not contain ingredients that require a complicated chemical process or patent to make.

Artificial foods are the opposite. The ingredients are things one can't grow for themselves, and probably can't even be pronounced if read off the label. These are things that have been developed by science, through chemistry or other processes, like powdered coffee creamer or high fructose corn syrup. The lines between real and artificial can get a little fuzzy because some things can be found naturally that are altered considerably when they become food or food ingredients. Carrageenan comes to mind. It is often listed as natural and does in fact, come from a natural substance, seaweed. It requires a process to extract, however, that is not do-it-yourself.

Live foods might also be called raw foods. They have not been cooked or processed in any way, such as raw fruits and vegetables. Milk too, if we're fortunate. These still have the vitamins and enzymes which are otherwise destroyed by heat, light, or irradiation.

Dead foods. Artificial foods can come under this category, but I think more of real, raw foods than have been sterilized, irradiated, bombarded with microwaves, or chemically treated to kill every living thing in them including the vitamins and enzymes our bodies need to function properly. This is done for the sake of so called food safety, and it does increase shelf life in the grocery store.

Living foods are not only real and live, they are alive. And growing. If not properly cared for they will die. They must be given an environment conducive for growth and they must be fed if they are to be kept alive.

Milk kefir grains

I have three such foods living in my kitchen: milk kefir grains, water kefir grains, and sourdough starter.  Keeping them alive seems simple enough, just feed them, or maybe it's just remembering to feed them. Even so, each has its own challenges.

As do all living things, living foods respond to their environment, particularly temperature. They do their job and grow faster in warmer temperatures than cool ones. Refrigeration, for example, will slow them down. It's also why time frames for making these products are given in ranges. If one's kitchen remains at a steady temperature, one can fairly well anticipate when one batch is ready and it's time to start another.

The biggest challenge for me is that my kitchen is never a consistent temperature. During winter, it is often in the 50s F (teens C), especially at night or when I'm not at home to keep the wood cookstove going. In summer, my kitchen is usually in the low 80s F (27° C). My living foods are continually responding to these. As the temperatures rise, I find the various batches mature more quickly. I have to keep an eye on them, looking for clues to tell me they've reached that point. With milk kefir, the milk eventually separates. With water kefir, I'm less sure. The water tastes less sweet and bubbles arise when I wiggle the jar, but I'm still trying to find the balance between done and overdone.

Sourdough starter

I've written about my sourdough starter a couple of times ("Accidental Sourdough" and "Problems With My Sourdough"). Also milk kefir awhile back, "Sustainable Cultured Milk", but I haven't mentioned my water kefir so far. Kris, at Melissa Majora and I traded kefir grains several months ago. I sent her milk kefir grains in exchange for water kefir grains. She dove right in and got a handle on milk kefir, while I'm still puzzling over my water kefir.

The real attraction to me with the water kefir, is being able to make "soda": a deliciously fizzy and not too sweet substitute for commercial soda pop. Because of the chilly spring temperatures (including my kitchen), it's been pretty hit-and-miss in the fizzy department.

Water kefir grains

All of this points back to living with them and gaining knowledge through experience. It's like having a relationship; I need to respond to what they tell me if I want them to thrive and grow. It's a learning process, one that I'm still deeply involved int. I figure that as long as I don't kill them off, I'm making progress.

Living with Living Foods © May 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

What I'm Learning About Rennet

Here is a compilation of all my notes on rennet, the key ingredient to making hard cheese.

~ Rennet is a coagulant. Its function is to separate milk solids from milk liquids, i.e. curds and whey.

~ Junket is a weak form of rennet used for making puddings and custards

~ Raw milk naturally separates into curds and whey as it sours. Rennet enables this separation while the milk is still sweet.

~ There are four types of rennet:

• animal rennet - made from the 4th stomach of ruminant (calf, lamb, or kid) which has consumed colostrum only
• natural vegetable rennet - made from plants
• microbial rennet - made from various cultured fungiform microorganisms (molds): Rhizomucor meihiei, Cryphonectria parasiticia, Mucor pusillus, Mucor miehei.
• recombinant (genetically modified) rennet called chymosin - derived from animal rennet

~ 80 to 90% of the commercial cheeses manufactured in the USA and Great Britain use chymosin

~ Natural vegetable rennet are proteolytic enzymes derived from plants, such as bromelain (from the pineapple) and ficin (from the fig), as well as biosynthetic chymosin.

~ Plant sources of natural rennets: thistle, fig, yarrow, ground ivy, Lady's Bedstraw, to name a few. An extensive list is here. 

~ Hard cheeses made from vegetable rennet are said to develop a bitter taste as they age, but apparently only in cows milk, not goat or sheep milk.

~ Some cheeses are always made with animal rennet: Parmesan,Grana Padano and Gorgonzola. They must be labeled "Parmesan style" for example, if using vegetable rennet.

~ Chlorine (in water) kills the active enzyme in rennet

~ Rennet cannot make curds in ultra-pasteurized milk because the milk's casein has been denatured due to the high heat involved in the ultra-pasteurizing process.

~ An alternative to renneted cheeses are kefir cheeses. I've not experimented with this but there is lots of information at this website, http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir_cheese.html. [Sorry it's not a link. The website owner requests permission before linking to their site, which I respect and did in my first kefir post. It's a bit of a hassle though, so forgive the addy with no link. Just copy and paste to go to the site.]

I definitely want to experiment someday with both kefir cheeses and vegetable rennets. I have fig trees, yarrow, and ground ivy (Creeping Charlie) readily available. Recipes for most of these are practially nonexsistent, so perhaps I can start with one of the thistle or nettle recipes. That project is still future, but here are some how-tos I collected from around the internet

• Homegrown Rennet - Joy of Cheesemaking
• How to make thistle rennet - Answers.Yahoo
• Another thistle rennet recipe - Medieval Cheese Forum
• Rennet from thistle and nettles - Prepare 4 Anything
• Stinging Nettles and Cheese Making - Country Farm Lifestyles (scroll about 1/3 way down)
• Making Rennet From Fig Sap - New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.

A step by step how-to (with photos) for making animal rennet can be found at Dr. Fankhauser's cheese making website, Rennet Preparation

And a few more resources. These actually form my bibliography:

• 200 Easy Homemade Cheeses, Debra Amrein-Boyes, Robert Rose, Inc. 2009
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cheese Making, James R. Leverentz, Alpha Books, 2010
• Home Cheese Making, Ricki Carroll, Storey Publishing, 2002
• "Rennet 101" at Artisanal Premium Cheeses
• Homegrown Rennet
• Chymosin (GMO Compass)
• Cheese Fact Sheet The Vegetarian Society of the U.K. Ltd
• FAQ About Cheese Making Leeners

Do you have any tidbits to add? I'd love to hear them.

Click to join in or read more
Homestead Barn Hop posts

What I'm Learning About Rennet © December 2012 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Sustainable Cultured Milk

Even though we produce our own milk, we rarely actually drink it. I've shown you the dairy products I make ("Ziggy Milk, Ziggy Butter, Ziggy Mozz"), but mostly we consume milk as yogurt. Nearly every day in fact. I know I've mentioned it frequently and have shown you my non-electric method of yogurt making, "Easy Peasy Homemade Yogurt", as well as how I make yogurt cheese. The only thing that bothers me about yogurt, is that I have to keep buying new starter. The good guy bacteria in the culture have a life span, and eventually the product changes as the culture ages. Every so often I have to buy some fresh yogurt to start again.

Another cultured milk product is kefir. I'd seen it as a fruit flavored drink in the dairy section at the grocery store. I never considered buying it, because most commercial products like this are too sweet and with too many nonessential synthetic ingredients. On top of that, commercial kefir is pasteurized, to kill anything alive in it, including the beneficial bacteria I'd be buying it for in the first place. Then I read that not only does kefir culture (called grains) not wear out, it actually perpetuates itself. If one takes proper care of it, that means never-ending cultured milk!

Because kefir grains multiply, it is easy to find them for sale, or for free from folks who just need to find a home for their ever increasing supply. Such was the case for me, and for the price of postage, I obtained my very own milk kefir from a gal on one of the goat lists I subscribe to.

Kefir grains

Making kefir is even easier than making yogurt. Just add one or two tablespoons of kefir grains to about 2 cups of milk. Cover to keep fruit flies out, and let sit on the counter for 24 - 48 hours. Sourness and thickness are controlled by the length of time it's allowed to sit. Then strain, put the newly made kefir into the fridge, get a clean jar, and start a new batch.

I was very curious as to it's taste. We eat our yogurt mostly on cereal in the morning, so this seemed a good substitute. But. It doesn't taste quite the same. Tangy from the beneficial bacteria, yes. But because it contains nutritional yeasts, it's a bit bubbly and has a different flavor.

Kefir after I've poured it into the strainer.

The only word I can think to describe it is effervescent.

I'm just starting my experiments but eventually should have lots to share about what I'm learning. Two books with directions for making it are Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. And of course there are tons of informational and how-to articles around the internet. The best I found are Dom's kefir webpages:

• About kefir grains and kefir
• how to make kefir (with lots of recipe links) 
• and kefir FAQs. 

Its uses intrigue me, in particular cheese, not only soft yogurt type cheese, but harder cheeses as well. Also bread making and lacto-fermenting; all things I already do. According to Wikipedia, it can be used in making sourdough bread and is an ingredient in some recipes for borscht.

Right now I'm working with milk kefir grains, but there are other types. Water kefir is commonly used with juices and I can already see that I need some of these grains too.

I am looking forward to experimenting with this. There seem to be a lot of possibilities for it's use, not to mention the nutritional benefits. Plus, I'm happy to be able to culture my goat milk without needing to continually replace the culture. After I've experimented a bit, I'll let you all know what I figure out.

Sustainable Cultured Milk © October 2012 by 

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/