(dear moderator: please do not delete this post, it's a serious question)
Friends,
A friend donated about 1,5 liters of her breastmilk. I really want to make cheese out of it, because, well it would be interesting and I like to try new stuff. Also, I'm writing a cookbook in which cheesemaking will be covered and this would make a interesting discussiontopic. However, making breastmilk cheese is notoriously difficult (see http://www.indrani.net/index.php?q=2006/03/breast_milk_cheese (http://www.indrani.net/index.php?q=2006/03/breast_milk_cheese) for a failure). The reason being it's low on proteine and the proteins are different than in cow's milk. I've been trying to make cheese out of store bought baby's milk for weeks, i don't want to waste my precious batch, and have not succeded. I added milkpowder to the baby's milk to increase the protein levels, to no avail. It gives a very bad break. Adding bodybuilder's Whey Protein did work, a little bit. Any clues on how to make this work?
why would you want to? I gotta say it would creep me out.
Along with lower protein you also have substantially lower calcium levels (34mg/100g as opposed to 120mg/100g in goat milk) and you will need to compensate for the effects of freezing the milk.
I suggest adding calcium chloride. You should expect that the curd will still be extremely fragile. I am not sure how to make cheese from commercial infant formula or if it is an adequate trial for you intended project.
I agree with Wayne-feed it to the baby!
Thanks guys, I will add the Cacl2. Have done so using commercial babymilk as well, which I practiced on.
I'll keep you updated. (except for Wayne :)
Well if you not opposed to adding things to the milk how about checking into carnation instant milk powder?
Someone else asked this question quite some time back, as their child was very lactose intolerant. I say, give it a go. Do what has been recommended here, and see what happens. Freezing unfortunately always compromises the milk quality. The other fellow never reported what the final results were, but I would love to know.
I had a friend that when cooking for her child used to just bare all standing at the stove and express away into the saucepan while cooking. Almost fainted the first time I saw it. :o
Well they claim it's the best thing with all the antibodies etc. I know my son was perfectly healthy until after I switched him to store bought powdered milk he got sick after a only a month. I don't think it's a cawinkydink!
Add skim milk powder to even your protein/fat ratio and double the CaCl dose. I assume you have frozen this milk? Unless it is incredibly high in fat (like 9 or 10%) you may not be bale to thaw it and make anything but glop with it.
making it as we speak
Superprisingly, it worked. I must have experimented with a least 5 litres (in 500 ml batches) of supermarket babymilk, all of which failed. But the real stuff worked. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but basicly I add LOTS of CaCl2 and rennet as well as enough powdered milk to raise the proteincontent to about 5%. Then I waited 2 hours for it to coagulate, break was moderate to OK, I cut it and heated it up to 45 degrees celcius before touching the curd. This firmed it up enough so that I could slowly mix it. Curds were good and quite firm.
one well, minor, problem: the milk seems to have gone bad in the freezer. :o
The smell is quite unappatizing, not soury, but definately off. So as an experiment it seems to have worked, but not as an actual edible product.
Well that's disappointing but ...some cheeses taste better with age. Hang in there. The odd taste could be the powdered milk maybe? I can't say that I have any idea what breast milk tastes like. I was curious but never had the nerve to try it.
I'll keep it for sure. However, I have tasted it before and it's fatty and sweet, but definately milkish. Furthermore, I expect babymilk and breastmilk should taste alike for babies to drink both. This breastmilk just had a strange odor to it, it reminds me of the time my fresh hogscasing for sausages had gone bad. Not good. Definately not the powdered milk.
CaCl2 also tastes horrible, so when you say you added LOTS, let hope that it wasn't too much.
Great to hear that if worked though.
The instructor of a cheese class I attended said that it is impossible to make cheese with human breast milk. He said he had tried making cheese with all kinds of milk including whale milk, but human milk won't work. He was trying it because of the people allergic to all kinds of milk except human and wanted to eat cheese.
Did he say why it wouldn't work?
I am entering late in the discussion and I can't say this "crazy" idea didn't pass from my mind but I can't even find a good source of raw/fresh cow milk let alone mother's milk :) and the kids are already passed that state. I appreciate the effort though in the name of providing cheese to lactoz intolerant babies.
Now, I believe mother's milk would be somewhat equal to goat's milk as goat's milk has these smaller fat globules which are digested easily than the cow's. People who can't drink cow's milk are using goat's.
As goats milk gives a more fragile curd like the mother's milk even with the added CaCl2 and milk powder, I think it is fair to say that mother's milk should be handled like goats milk. Maybe even mixed with goat's milk would give a better cheese but lactoz comes into question here for intolerant people/babies.
The protein powder used may also be selected as pea protein isolate powder so that lactoz intolerant people can consume this cheese.
Also "iron" which is in cow's milk does not exist in mother's milk. I am not sure how this affects the coagulation but it is one of those things that is missing in the mother's milk.
I believe the instructor said that human milk will not coagulate to form a curd.
There is no lactose intolerance with raw milk.
Thanks Sailor, I didn't know that. Does loactose become intolerable after homogenising and pasturising processes?
That's true Sailor I found that out first hand with my adopted son ( by sons best friend) he was latose intolerant all his life but he can eat my raw milk cheese and drink the milk I get from the farm.
From what I can understand, it is the homogenisation process that causes the intolerance.
Lactase is the enzyme that digests lactose - the sugar in milk. Lactase is killed off by the pasturization process, as it can't tolerate high heat.
When we are young, our bodies produce enough lactase to digest milk properly, but many adults no longer produce enough, thus are lactose intolerant.
Thanks Karen,
There you go, I learnt something new today to from this forum...
"But I can't even find a good source of raw/fresh cow milk let alone mother's milk"
Gurkan......THAT CRACKED ME UP!
Great line!!
Dave
Dave, lol ;D
It is another trouble to get raw milk here, not even herd share is available in Canberra, it is illegal to sell/advertise raw milk, the only available one sold as a beauty product to bath in it and there is no farm close enough to get some.
If I have enough land, I would get some cows or sheeps, quit my job, and become an artisan cheesery (I still need a lot of knowledge though) ::)
Didn't Borat's wife made some? :P
There should be a thread here about strange milk cheeses. I reently heard of a Camel's milk cheese that is made in Germany of all places. I always wanted to know if anyone ever made cheese out of a sea mammal's milk.
Seriously now; I don't think that you can create a fodmula for human milk cheese based on experimentation with supermarket baby milk. They are entirely different in composition, enzymes, minerals, bacterias and protein strains. Moreover, human milk changes according to the time of day and stage of the entire breastfeeding period. Additionally, being omnivores and eating a modern diet of non-regional plant, fungi, animal and processed/synthetic food ingredients - there are way too many factors here that can be wrong. I would think the best bet would be to try and make yogurt or kefir out of it. This will also bring it up to safe high temperature. You would still need CalCl.
Quote from: Sailor Con Queso on January 05, 2010, 11:31:30 PM
There is no lactose intolerance with raw milk.
Sailor, my son is lactose intolerant and we only drink raw milk....
And I see Debi has found the same experience as you sailor...hmmm.....
We do not pasteurise either, its taken straight from our milk vat.
Thks for that - maybe he is misdiagnosed...
Well Cath there's an exception to everything but it seems to have worked for two people I know so far.
I've never heard of anyone showing lactose intolerance to raw milk. Google will point you to lots of sources regarding "lactose intolerance misdiagnosis".
Misdiagnosed in this case is a circular argument. If someone is truly lactose intolerant, how can they drink raw milk, which is loaded with lactose, and not have problems??? A more accurate diagnosis might be "store bought, processed milk intolerance".
Just curious whether or not your son is intolerant to homemade cheese, especially fresh cheeses. Can he tolerate Mozzarella?
sailor,
My doctor has told me it is lactose intolerance, but my son has never been formally tested, so maybe it is a case of misdiagnosis.
BUT certainly he cannot tolerate milk - raw milk included.
He is OK with any thing else, to a degree (cheeses, yoghurt etc) but can only have them in small quantities.
Its like the overflowing cup - if the cup is half full he can have some but if the cup is full - no.
It is not an allergy, solely because he can tolerate a small amount.
I am thinking misdiagnosis from what you say, but I dont know what it could be. Never bothered with formal testing. We know and he knows what he can and cannot tolerate.
Ironically, if he can't handle raw milk he may actually have a rare case of true lactose intolerance. GPs and Family Practice folks can often be too quick to diagnose things like this without all the facts. However, a "diagnosis" doesn't really change how you manage the situation. The fact that he can handle some milk doesn't fit the classic clinical profile. How old is your son? Sometimes kids grow out of these kinds of reactions.
he is 10 and is actually getting worse rather than better.
The level of 'tolerance' is getting smaller.
I'd get a second opinion so you know for sure what you are dealing with.
Since his tolerance level is getting lower, I would say he has true lactose intolerance. As a human ages, they produce less and less lactase. It sounds like he is just about bottoming out.
cheers you two for your thoughts...
funny huh - live on a dairy farm with something like 7000 litres of milk available a day and my son cant touch it - lol....
I really found this discussion fascinating for two reasons.....I experiment with just about anything edible, and the mini-thread on lactose intolerance. My own experience....I grew up on a dairy farm, drinking milk straight from the tank. it was not until I moved away from home to the big city that I developed intolerance. It peaked when I was about 28. Now, I just get very gassy (sorry for the tmi, but i thought it might be relevant). I have a younger brother who couldn't even handle goat's milk as a baby. he has no problems now, except similar to mine.....
So, thanks for the great read, I really hope you suceed with your cheese, and Cath, I hope your son gets better and maybe this will give you a little light!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588667,00.html?test=latestnews (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588667,00.html?test=latestnews)
I saw that last night, too Wayne, and immediatly thought of this thread!
I can't imagine how that's legal.