Is there fresh milk in France?

[Stew]

[quote]You can get crème cru as well, not so sour as fraiche. Kids have been brought up drinking semi skimmed, done them no obvious harm. Went to England once, they had a pint of ordinary english milk and wo...[/quote]

That's very useful coz I've been doing some plumbing work for Dutch clients and they were saying how they can't find buttermilk. I'll tell them.

The Dutch also pour condensed milk into their coffee and dring glasses of fresh milk at lunch. So that's where all the fresh milk in the supermarket goes - its the bloody Dutch nicking it all!

Stew

(now having to be trilingual to accomodate the dutch - lekker, smaaklik and hoe kom?)

[Teamedup]

I don't think that buttermilk is fresh cream.

 I thought that it was the whey that was left when making dairy products. It is called petit lait in France, I'm pretty sure about that........... but if someone could confirm it would allay a slight doubt I have.

[Stew]

[quote]I don't think that buttermilk is fresh cream. I thought that it was the whey that was left when making dairy products. It is called petit lait in France, I'm pretty sure about that........... but if...[/quote]

yeah, I quoted the wrong blessed topic. Buttermilk is the sour thin stuff left after churning butter. An acquired taste. Makes good biscuits tho

Stew

(8 years as an analyst programmer and I still can't get to grips with b*st*rd computers)

[Patf]

Yes you're right Teamedup. In my teens I used to stay with my relatives who had a farm and my aunt had a milk separater and butter churn .Can't remember how the separater worked but you put milk in and it produced cream and whey which I think is buttermilk. She churned the cream by hand to make butter. Pat.

[Dick Smith]

Surely whey is what is left behind after milk has curdled? Buttermilk is thicker - see

http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa012901a.htm

I once made butter with a junior class (by shaking full-cream milk in coffee jars) and they all drank the buttermilk that was left. And then threw it up...

[Stew]

Dick is right.

When you curdle milk with Rennet (or other acids - never try to make an orange milkshake!) it seperates into the solids (Curds - which can be easily pressed to make cottage cheese or pressed further and stored, and contaminated with bacteria to make 1000 other cheeses) and a liquid (Whey - remember little miss muffett?)

When you churn cream long enough it seperates out into its fat content (butter) and a liquid (buttermilk)

Curds & Whey doesn't take much physical activity, heat the milk to blood temperature, ad the rennet and hey presto.

Butter on the other hand requires a shed-load of agitation to get it tocome right, and then you still have to smack the butter smartly with paddles to force more liquid out. Then into the cute molds.

I've made cheese a few times, and once you can get over the trust barrier that yes, this stuff is the same as the stuff that comes shrinkwrapped in the shops, its quite a satisfying hobby.

Stew

[Millymollymandy]

Is the buttermilk left after churning butter thick and creamy (and sour?). Because some people say that Lait Ribot (the Breton thick creamy sour milk) is buttermilk. Anyway that's what I use in recipes like soda bread which call for buttermilk, and it works perfectly.

As for the Breton fresh milk - we found that the semi-skimmed tasted like full cream long life. It made me feel sick. So we switched to semi-skimmed long life and that's much nicer, plus it's miles cheaper if you buy boxes of it in places like Netto and Lidl. I do miss real milk though. And "real" milk is what I have come across everywhere (UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, other parts of France, Australia, NZ) except Brittany!

[Piprob]

For Peter's benefit, the Sugar Puffs are usually to be found on the third shelf up, second row in.

Rob