September
2010 Newsletter
Food focus: Cheese
Cheese is made by coagulating milk through
acidification, either by adding vinegar or lemon or by letting the available
bacteria do the job. Those bacteria turn the milk sugars into lactic acid. (Non-vegetarian cheese is made using the
enzymes in rennet for curdling.) Once
you have coagulation, traditionally called curdling, you will have curds
containing the protein casein and whey, a liquid which it is now believed helps
stimulate insulin release. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey) The protein in whey is prized for its
bio-availability.
Ancillary questions are: What type of milk? Cow, sheep, goat, yak? How warm and how moist
is the atmosphere? What about spices like dill or cumin? How long does it age for? All those things affect the taste and the
consistency of cheese.
Sadly, quite a few people feel they
should steer off cheese – why? The high fat content adds to the calories. If it’s
aged, it’s also pretty high in salt.
Furthermore most cheese (not cream cheese) is high in the amino acid
tyromine.
These
three characteristics make dieters, hypertensives, and migraineurs wary of aged
cheeses.
However, for most people, cheese offers
a lot that’s healthy: calcium and protein, of course. Also various minerals and vitamins, depending on
what kind of cheese and how it’s processed.
The harder the cheese, the more calcium and protein it provides. So Parmesan has six times as much calcium as
Brie and nearly twice as much protein.
Other hard cheeses, like Cheddar, Swiss, and Edam have four times the calcium and somewhat
more protein than Brie. (Environmental
Nutrition, August, 2010, p.7)
Recipe of the Month:
Cheese with Ease
Two ways of making cheese are described
below. One, using raw milk, comes from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
(New Trends, 2001) and the other from Wild
Fermentation, by Sandor Ellix Katz (Chelsea Green, 2003).
1. Use raw milk that has
separated (left at room temperature for 1-4 days) OR plain yogurt with live
cultures.
2. Put tight-weave
cheese cloth lining a strainer, which is over a bowl.
3. Let it stand till all
the whey has dripped into the bowl.
4. Tie the cloth up with
the curds inside (don’t squeeze) and hang it on a big spoon spanning the bowl
to finish dripping.
5. Store the whey in a
closed glass jar for up to six months in the fridge.
6. Cheese will last for
up to one month, also in glass, in the fridge, if you don’t eat it first!
~~~~~~~~~
1. Heat the (pasteurized)
milk to a slow boil while stirring, then remove it from the stove.
2. Add vinegar (1/2 cup
for each gallon of milk), a little at a time, until the milk curdles.
3. Follow the directions
for the other recipe starting at number (2).
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