got milk? now what?!!

for the past 4 years, we have had 1-2 freshened does at a time. 2 goats generally gave us about a gallon a day, more if we milked twice a day. last week, we purchased 3 more does in milk and are now milking 5 goats twice a day which produces an awful lot of milk!

since we don’t have a customer base built up yet, there have been a lot of ‘oh crap, the fridge is full of milk, what am i going to do with all of it?!’ moments lately. yesterday was one of them.

usually, with the amount i get, i make mozzarella once a week, which i find delicious but nobody else in my family eats. they are still conditioned to eating cheese out of a piece of plastic rather than a glass jar i suppose because the cheese is very remarkable. so, i have to sneak it into things such as on top of eggplant parmesan or grated into salads.

yogurt is another staple around here that everyone WILL eat so i generally make 1/2 gallon at a time. yesterday, i made a gallon! we eat this with whatever fresh fruit is in season with a glob of our raw honey on top. delicious!

another 2 gallons went into making a simple cheese. i actually followed a recipe online called ‘homemade goat cheese’ even though the first ingredient said: 2 gallons of cow’s milk (or goat’s milk). i did a double take! what? make goat’s cheese from cow’s milk? who would have thought that would work?! i only used this particular recipe because it was similar to one i’ve used before and i just wanted the proportions of vinegar to use.

before i started making things, i skimmed off all the cream and came up with 2 cups cream. after searching the internet for a suitable recipe, i finally decided to just wing it and attempt to make some ice cream/iced milk. this is what i ended up throwing together:

1 can of coconut milk
2 cups cream
4 cups milk
1 cup honey

i stirred all that up really well and put it in the freezer. last night, before i went to bed, i pulled it out and churned the ice cold mixture in the blender then put it back in the freezer. this am, it’s about 1/2 frozen and i’ll churn it again in the blender but i did sneak a taste and it was delicious! i think with some chocolate chips thrown on top, it’s going to be the bomb here.

the final thing i made was a custard. oh my goodness was it good. i’ve attempted custard in the past, years ago, and it was a disaster. i was wanting to make pudding but had no tapioca balls or corn starch and got tired of searching so i settled on making custard, praying to the milk gods that it would work. i ended up cooking it about 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for, mostly because i think the oven wasn’t warm enough to start with but, needless to say, the dish didn’t make it off the dinner table with any leftovers. i’ll defnitely be making that again real soon!

baked custard
2 egg yolks
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups very hot milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
nutmeg

preheat the oven to 325. butter a square baking dish (i used a 2 quart). set a 9 x 13 baking dish in the oven and pour about 1″ of hot water into that (you will eventually be setting your square dish into this so make sure it fits).

beat the yolks and eggs together just enough to blend. stir in the sugar and salt. start slowly adding the milk while you stir constantly. i used a hand operated egg beater, assisted by my wwoofer so we were able to beat and pour at the same time. add the vanilla.

pour into the square pan and grate fresh nutmeg over the top. put in the dish in the oven and bake about 45 minutes or when a knife stuck into the center comes out clean (it took me 65 – 70 minutes).

other variations that i’m going to have to try are:

coffee custard: add 2 tablespoons instant coffee to the milk before it is heated

chocolate custard: melt 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate in the milk when it is being heated

coconut custard add 1/2 cup flaked coconut to the mixture before putting it into the baking dishes.

so, a milk crisis was diverted and we got lots of yummy treats from it! phew! we are safe for another 3-4 days! time to start looking for more recipes and ideas or customers.