Cravendale Milk is useless for making cheese

Yeah, nice big headline on that one please.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was making cheese and things had not gone to plan. Well I have some follow up news on that front.

We use Cravendale Milk. Mostly because of it's longevity. We buy the two litre packs and that usually lasts us a whole week. Good for cornflakes and tea throughout. We buy the semi-skimmed version (green top) simply because it has less fat and a decent taste. The skimmed one (red) tastes too watery.

I bought the Big Cheese Making Kit as part of my seeds order from Suttons.

They state quite clearly on their instructions and on the FAQ page on the Big Cheese's website..

... so naturally we bought the massive big whole milk (blue top) Cravendale Milk. I mean after all that is exactly what they said to use.

I was making the Ricotta Cheese so, being a first timer, I followed the instructions to the letter, carefully measuring out the 50ml of water for the 1.5 teaspoons of citric acid, taking careful consideration to times and temperatures etc. And what do I end up with? Barely 2oz of cheese as opposed to the 2lbs they say I should get.

The results, to say the least were very disappointing.

I was very annoyed as you can imagine. A waste of time and money. So I immediately filled in their "contact us" page. This morning I received the following email...

Hi there, 

Thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry that your first attempt wasn't much of a success but it turns out that there is a really simple explanation.

Actually, we're really glad that you contacted us because you've highlighted an issue that we weren't really aware of. It turns out that the brand of milk that you used is the reason your ricotta didn't turn out, I've quoted what Cravendale say about their product below:

'We don't just pasteurise our milk, we also use ceramic filters to remove even more of the bacteria that turns milk sour. This keeps our milk deliciously pure and fresh for twice as long as standard fresh milk without the need for additives or preservatives. It's that simple.'

If you use normal full fat blue top milk (not processed or filtered) then you'll be fine. If you want an even higher yield then add in some gold top jersey milk or a touch of cream. 

You are right that a tsp is a teaspoon, make sure it's a full teaspoon that you use. It turns out that he citric acid wasn't your problem here though, the milk was.

Thanks very much for getting in touch, we hadn't come across this before!

Good luck with your next batch, which I'm sure will be a huge success.

Do let us know how you get on.

Kind regards, 

Alison

So, there you have it. Cravendale milk may be good for longevity, but the manufacturing process it goes through makes it useless for making cheese, even if you do use the Whole Milk version.

(Oh, incidentally it seems that Big Cheese are also breaking the law when it comes to their information. Statutory Instruments 1994 No 2866 and No 2867. Big Cheese only ever use Imperial measurements with no other options. Another reason I was annoyed with them. Use of old measurements should not be tolerated in this day and age. What is this? The 60's?)

Somebody somewhere owes me for 4.5 litres of milk.

Spring has arrived

After yesterday's post, I had a look back at my blog. Last year we started the main seeds off on the 7th of April, this year it's the 8th of March, a whole month earlier. Well last year was incredibly cold at the start. This year was incredibly wet. But on the whole, I don't think a couple of weeks here or there really matters.

Sunday was probably the sunniest day of the year so far. Seems like everybody was crawling out of the woodwork to be down the allotment. I was down there bright and early, but even I wasn't the first. Today was mostly spent digging the still wet soil, piling up the couch grass in the new mound, and carting barrow loads of manure to be used liberally on the plot. We get our manure from Dean City Farm which is just a few miles away. But we are not the only allotment site in Merton to benefit from their manure. It seems like their manure is quite widely wanted. We've had our main delivery for a few weeks now, and it has ripened nicely. Whilst digging into it, the bottom part was totally saturated with water. Hardly surprising. But what was surprising was the moist level just under the crust. I have never seen so many worms. There were thousands of them. Must be good stuff if the worms love it.

Both Rhubarbs (the small and the large) got liberal doses of the mucky stuff. As did the beds. Well I say beds, but they're not really. It's just a big dug patch. One thing I really need to do is sort out proper beds. Preferably raised ones, which won't be susceptible to flooding so easily.

Elsewhere, the Perpetual Spinach seems to have got through the "winter" relatively unscathed. There are a few browned leaves, but there are lots of young leaves coming up. Good for a few wiltings for dinner at least.

Anyhow, after all the digging and the heat of the day, I just went home, grabbed a cool cider from the fridge and collapsed in front of the TV. Which is why I'm writing this up on Monday night as opposed to Sunday night.

I've just spent an hour trying to make some Ricotta cheese from the Big Cheese Making Kit that I bought when I ordered my seeds. I don't think it has worked properly. I followed the recipe to the letter (I alway do when trying new things) but all I have are few small curds floating on the top of what looks like normal milk. I think I've just wasted 8 pints of milk.