French milk

[Chancer]

Its the fat content that is critical to whip cream, many creams especially the low fat ones use guar gum etc to thicken them.

 

I use crème fraiche all the time in cooking, I have not made a proper roux sauce in a decade and the flour I have remaining dates from the last century!

 

There is something about crème fraiche that makes it thicken a sauce whereas other creams just make it even more liquid, its not the fat content (others are higher) and the one I use contains no thickening compound, a mystery but it means no more flour which for me is a good thing.

 

Never ever try whipping French cream with fixe chantilly, whilst it will thicken eventually you will just end up with cardboard tasting stuff with the texture of spray cream but even more bland.

[andyh4]

Elle et Vivre do a crème epaise and Mascarpone mix that behaves like double cream and to my taste (now separated from double cream for 20 years or so) is very similar.

[Jonzjob]

I have read most of this thread and can't believe some of it?

Cheese is cheese is cheese, apart from some of the processed c r a p . Cantal, 'laguiole, chedder are all similar, but different. Anyone who chucks the best and most tasty bit away, the rind, has got to have somethng missing from the neck up. I mean, they would probably reject the rind from the 'King of Cheeses' Stilton!

Goat's cheese, sheeps cheese, cows cheese are all wonderful as long as they are raw cheeses. Pasturise them and you will loose a boat load of the taste. Fresh cheese, mature cheese? All wonderful, how else can you describe them, unless you also like MacDoDos 'stuff' [:-))]

I like GOOD cheese [8-|]

[Chancer]

Just recalled the one I liked in place of Cheddar, - Compté.

 

I know its not the same but I think that is the key here, not to look for the same but to seek something different, if all you want in life is "a nice cup of tea" probably best not to move abroad.

[idun]

We have always used a lot of milk and my biggest mistake was going to the hypermarche on the outskirts of the city we lived in and buying a months milk, about 40litres then, and decided to buy the creamy long life........ ecreme...........[:$][:$][:$]

Remember opening it and it was like water and I had no idea what was up with it until I got the big dictionnary out.

Later we bought demi ecreme, but once we had kids, did as I believe all kids should always have, bought full milk for them and us too. Strangely, all the kids who came round used to say how lovely the milk was, as ALL their parents bought skimmed or semi skimmed.  And we then, got through at least three litres a day, still get through loads.

Cantal,  the taste to us is a mix of some british cheeses, caerphilly and maybe wensleydale and another. Never found one that I can say is better than cheddar, as each cheese has it's place, even the dreaded emmantael. Tried making a croque monsieur with other than emmantael and it is HORRIBLE and sickly, for all it seems to have little taste, it compliments the rest of the ingredients I use, that is for sure.

I would no more want fermented milk than I would sterilized....not to my taste at all..... we are all different.

[idun]

I would never trust any french cream to whip, and would always have cremefix to hand, although in fairness I always used to give my elle et vire creme entier in a carton, well chilled, the chance to whip before I added the creme fix.

Would be nice to hear if some does manage to thicken without a little hand.[:D]

[Patf]

You can also buy lait cru, it's in a little plastic sack. I bought some once when they had run out of pasteurised, or the milk farmers were having a protest because of the very low price.

It didn't taste any different, but I wouldn't use it all the time - I once knew someone who was very ill from drinking it , some strange disease.

[Patf]

You can also buy lait cru, it's in a little plastic sack. I bought some once when they had run out of pasteurised, or the dairy farmers were having a protest because of the very low price.

It didn't taste any different, but I wouldn't use it all the time - I once knew someone who was very ill from drinking it , some strange disease.

[Chancer]

Pasteurisation is fine and very necessary to kill dangerous bacteria but its the post pasteurising homogenisation that removes the taste of what many call proper milk, in fact unless there are still doorstep deliverys of bottled milk then I would say that you cannot buy unhomogenised milk these days, I have not seen a milkman in the UK in the last decade and have never seen unhomogenised milk on sale in France except once from a distributeur which was never refilled.

 

Unhomogenised milk will have a depth of cream on the top which will gradually increase as the fats continue to seperate, it begins to smell before it goes off, people younger than myself have completely lost the instinct to smell milk before using it, with homogenised milk you have no idea that it has gone off before you put in in your drink or on your cornflakes, you are using milk that but for the homogenisation would be visibly seperated, curdled and rancid you just dont know it.

[Hereford]

Idun: The Elle & Vire "Creme Mascarpone" (mentioned earlier) really does whip beautifully, in  a couple of minutes. I add a spoonful of vanilla sugar (not a fixe - I make the sugar myself) and it is indistiguisable from whipped cream. Only (I think) 30% is mascarpone. It has only been around for a year or so.

It comes in little cartons and is usually sitting on a shelf next to the E & V ordinary creme so one has to take care to buy the right one.

[Gardengirl]

I need to look for that, Hereford, it sounds just what I need.

I buy unhomogenised milk in England for our grandchildren, usually from the little food-only M&S nearby or Waitrose; I prefer the M&S as the cream doesn't sit at the top after giving it a good shake.

I've just started the Comté we bought at our market (in France), I prefer the oldest they have, but usually buy the middle one, matured for 18 months, I think, as my husband doesn't like the more mature Comté. I don't think it's anything like Cheddar, I love the nutty flavour.

I also bought another cheese that I had last week too, made from raw brebis milk, wrapped in a ring of spruce; it's delicious, but prefer the brique of brebis they have at other times of the year. I'm told it's best not to put it in the fridge (nor the brique), but our apartment can get quite warm, so don't fancy it ooozing out, so I put it in the fridge and take it out about an hour before I want to eat it.

It's called Le Claousou du Causse Méjean and is from the Lozère; really creamy and delicious.

[mint]

I love Comté too, but only if mature.  I was first introduced to it by a Dutch couple years ago.

The other cheese that I really like and that I haven't seen mentioned is Ossau Iraty from the Pays Basque.  I went to a farm last year and brought back a mature cheese and I got to eat it all to myself as OH wouldn't eat anything from a sheep!

[alittlebitfrench]

Here you are Mint, a traditional recipe using comté cheese which we cook all the time. Very cheap to make.

http://www.lesfoodies.com/lyly59/recette/tourte-fine-au-jambon-comte-et-champignons

Not sure OH puts crème fraîche in ours.

Dead simple, dead nice and no need to shop in Tescos.

If Brits learnt how to cook before they move to France they would not have to rely on those STUPID FOOD VANS from the UK.

It annoys me to hell those vans. Have I mentioned that ??

[Gardengirl]

Mint, I love it too! Can't get it locally here, but Waitrose stock it!

[Gardengirl]

<<

Dead simple, dead nice and no need to shop in Tescos.

If Brits learnt how to cook before they move to France they would not have to rely on those STUPID FOOD VANS from the UK.

It annoys me to hell those vans. Have I mentioned that ?? >>

Mentioned far too many times! Perhaps your main topic on here.

Why do you have to go on about Tescos, food vans etc - haven't you gathered that many/most posters on here don't even think about food vans, Tescos etc.

Or maybe you secretly yearn for those things yourself - there's probably reams about it in psychology manuals ?

[Chancer]

He gets his fix in Marks & Spencer Paris.

[Chancer]

I just thought of you ALBF, or plutôt your alter ego Birdfoodmiles, I have just ordered some bird food from the UK [:P]

 

bought it on Amazon.fr but of course it was twice the quantity at half the price from a UK seller.

 

Just hope the moineaux appreciate the lengths I am going to for them [6]

[woolybanana]

Do they still need feeding or is this stock for next winter?

[alittlebitfrench]

Yes, Birdfoodmiles...I had forgotten that. LOL

Brits that buy bird food from the UK because it is better quality. You could not make it up.

Birds have fecin wings....they can fly to the UK themselves to visit Tony Soper's flipin bird table if French bird food is not up to scratch.

Brits abroad. They need help.

[Cendrillon]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Yes, Birdfoodmiles...I had forgotten that. LOL

Brits that buy bird food from the UK because it is better quality. You could not make it up.

Birds have fecin wings....they can fly to the UK themselves to visit Tony Soper's flipin bird table if French bird food is not up to scratch.

Brits abroad. They need help.[/quote]

Remind us ALBF when did you cease to be a Brit abroad?

[alittlebitfrench]

I will always be a Brit abroad......lol

[Leven]

France has plenty of good food, nothing comes to mind other than raw beef. LOL > I still buy bisto but from French supermarkets.

[alittlebitfrench]

I just googled Bisto...lol...

What is it exactly ?

[chessie]

GardenGirl - Ouch - now those are a bit unnecessary comments - a bit harsh.   Don't think anyone's mentioned food vans from UK have they ?  I'd suggest it's BECAUSE many of us can cook that we realise the shortcomings in a great deal of french food - and how the quality isn't as good as the UK food items.   Look at all the French chefs who've gone to the UK - using UK ingredients they do very well;  wouldn't be able to do the same here in France.

Now I dare you, just dare you, to go and stand in the Polish aisle in a UK supermarket, or a German aisle, or a French aisle, or a Greek aisle, or an Italian one - or any of the French, German, Polish, Greek, Italian shops and delis -

and tell all those non-UK peoples that they should learn to cook British food - and not wish for an occasional taste of home.

Try it - you'd be in real serious trouble.  Enough to start a flippin' riot !!! Go on - live dangerously- give it a go.

I'd love to know the psychology of why ANYONE from any country, sometimes wishes to have a taste of their own homeland.   It's a pretty widespread and fairly normal human feeling isn't it ?

Don't think any of us on here deserve that bit of an outburst surely ?

Lighten up - it started off as me laughing at myself - can't we keep it there ?

Chessie

[Chancer]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Do they still need feeding or is this stock for next winter?[/quote]

 

They are refusing to come into my trap unless I feed them something special, a little bird told that if you want to score with the birds then millet blanc is the thing, I have never before had a problem getting shot of birds, cant usually hang on to them [;-)] and I thought this lot would eventually push off to sunnier climes but little did I know that she just wanted to get up the duff and poke out loads of little horrors who are now all teenagers hanging around all the time and pushing out their own offspring and that like true Picards they never travel more than a couple of km.

 

I am told if you dump em a few miles from home they wont come back, I've only ever tried it once myself but it certainly worked, not taking any chances this time, I am taking them all on a one way trip to YUK [:D]

 

If I can catch them that is [:(]