Recipes involving milk

[mecwales]

I've been given 24 pints of semi-skimmed cow's milk: what should I do with it?

[pcolbeck]

Make a whole bath of blancmange ?

[gonzo]

Have you got a butter churning device handy?

How about an army of cats?

[αdαmsκι]

custard
freeze it
smoothies

[Clare]

Freeze it, milk can be used as normal once defrosted.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Rice pudding with skin.

And freeze the rest.

[little miss mac]

A bathful of mashed potatoes.

MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm.

[gonzo]

A bathful of mashed potatoes.

Are you thinking of American Beauty too?

[little miss mac]

Er.. I don't remember that bit 

[hellymedic]

Make kulfi? I don't know a recipe but I seem to recall large volumes of milk being boiled down.

[goatpebble]

Make cheese!

Start with 5 litres, heat the milk slowly, with a tablspoon of salt, until it is hot, but not yet simmering. Add the juice of a lemon, or two, and watch the curds seperate.

Drain into a colander lined with a double layer of muslin. Leave it to sit for a while, and you should then have a mass of curds ready to drain properly. At this stage you can gather up the ends of the muslin, and shape the curds into a compact shape. Tie the ends up, and suspend your cheese over a bowl, or the sink, so it can quietly drip.

The resulting curd cheese is very useful, on it's own, or in cooking.

Be aware that if you heat the curds too long, the resulting texture will change. It will become oddly springy. Not good, unless you want to aim for something half way between ricotta and mozzarella. If you keep things quick, and the temperatures modest, then you should have a light and creamy sort of fresh cheese.

[mecwales]

Ahhh I quite like the idea of cheese! Smoothies also seem like a really good idea - maybe I could improvise some sort of homemade recovery drink...

[goatpebble]

Ahhh I quite like the idea of cheese! Smoothies also seem like a really good idea - maybe I could improvise some sort of homemade recovery drink...

It is worth trying, at least twice, to make your own fresh cheese. You can have it for breakfast, with honey, or as a simple salad with tomato. For cooking you can use to stuff simple filo things, with herbs, or in stuffed peppers or tomatoes. It works wonderfully if you use it to stuff small tomatoes, with some fresh thyme, and roast them.

It has the virtue of not only being cheap, but teaching a lesson about self-reliance. My grandmother made such cheese all the time. It was part of the normal life of the kitchen. To not have it would have been odd, and a sign of bad housekeeping.

[Pancho]

Drink it?

Is a glass of milk unfashionable these days? My family look at me in disgust when I down a pint of milk. I love it.

My Pal is also a milk drinker and we usually share a 2 litre bottle in the morning when watching cricket.

[Julian]

Ahhh I quite like the idea of cheese! Smoothies also seem like a really good idea - maybe I could improvise some sort of homemade recovery drink...

Get Andy Gates to give you his recipe for tuna and banana smoothie.

[goatpebble]

Drink it?

Is a glass of milk unfashionable these days? My family look at me in disgust when I down a pint of milk. I love it.

My Pal is also a milk drinker and we usually share a 2 litre bottle in the morning when watching cricket.

Of course, ice cold milk is a good thing to drink! But 24 liters might need some more ideas!

[hellymedic]

If you try to make a recovery drink, do not use (unbuffered) fruit juice to flavour it. The acidity of the juice will curdle the milk proteins (that's how the cheese upthread is made).
Crusha milkshake syrup is specially formulated with 'acidity regulators' (mostly sodium citrate) to reduce curdling. (Old bottles of Crusha need to be shaken before use as otherwise the acidity regulators may not be well-mixed and the shake may curdle.)