Monday, February 21, 2011

Bosgooson uurag, and while we're at it, gloria palletorum

The wee nanny baby is standing on her own four feet. The bosgooson uurag is hanging to drain and I found that by the time it self-curdled (whey cool! self-curdling cheese!) it had reached pasteurization temperatures, which was good because milking in Joy's stall instead of the milking stand presents some challenges. Here is a picture of the bosgooson uurag (remember to put two dots above all four "o's" -- and let me know if you know how to pronounce that).

And a bonus picture that Ronan took some time back of morning light from the front door. I'm calling it Gloria Palletorum -- the glory of the pallets.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

As eezgii as pie -- what to do with colostrum

Joy's udder is huge and she only has one dinky kid. So why waste the colostrum? I started looking around for colostrum cheeses and found these two handy recipes from a vastly cool website promoting Mongolian nomadic life. I'm going to try the bosgooson uurag first and then the less easy eezgii. For the curious this website is detailed and involved and goes far beyond dairy products -- but probably exceptionally handy if you keep Bashkir ponies for dairy purposes. Or camels. http://www.mandal.ca/d/Dairy_products.html

Here are the recipes:

Bösgöösön uurag

The colostrum secreted for a few days after parturition. This milk has a high protein content and produces a thick, cheese-like substance when heated, which can be sliced and eaten. The colostrum is collected in a special container, which is then suspended in a pot of water that is heated to a boil, taking care that the boiling water does not spill into the container of milk. The milk can also be heated by steaming. The resulting product has a sweet flavour.

Uurgiin eezgii

Eezgii made from the colostrum of cows, sheep or goats. The colostrum is boiled and caused to separate, then continued to be heated until the whey has been boiled off.