Goat's milk whipped cream, or, why I married a farm boy
So it turns out my mother-in-law has been holding out on me. Eighteen years I've known her. Almost two decades of sitting in awe at her table while she serves goat-milk raised meat that falls off the fork and drifts across your tongue.
I've watch her countless times as she tosses a beef bouillon cube and two carrots in a pot and somehow makes a pot roast that I can only replicate in my dreams. And for years, I've known that she can churn out bowls of goat cheese that make me walk by the farmer's market stands with their little disks of $8 funk and laugh.
But it turns out she waited 18 years before pulling out the big guns.
Last night, I brought a pie for dessert and in her casual way, as in, of course I can rock your world whenever I feel like it, she pulled two plastic containers out of the fridge.
"What's that," I asked.
"Goat's milk cream," she said.
Then she pulled out the 40-year-old avocado green Kitchen Aid.
I stuck a fingertip of the cream in my mouth. There was none of the funk of goat cheese, or even some goat's milk. Just smooth, cool sweetness.
Unlike cow's milk, goat's milk doesn't separate easily. When my mother-in-law was a child they had fresh milk delivered to the doorstep. Within an hour, there was a cream line on top. To get the three cups of cream that were now fluffing in the Kitchen Aid, she had to pasteurize two gallons of goat milk (not to mention raise and milk the goats), and then let the milk sit for four days.
I am glad she did.
When the cream thickened a bit, she tossed in a few teaspoons of sugar and a dash of vanilla.
The result was a billowy cloud unlike anything I'd ever tasted. Goat cream is thicker, no, heavier, no, those aren't the right words. It is denser than cow cream.
The fat globules are smaller, she explained to me. There was nowhere for the taste buds to go except further into the flavor. My mouth felt like it had gone for a walk down a country lane on a vanilla-and-sweet-hay-scented sunny day.
We served the cream on top of pie, but all it really needed was a spoon.
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Comments
That was a nice story about the whipped cream. Thanks for the flattering words. I think my cooking doesn't hold a candle to yours!
- by Esther on Oct 7, 2007 at 10:33 PM | link
Hi Celina--It's Terri fr Body+Soul...and let me tell you, normally the idea of whipped goat's milk would not appeal, but I do love whipped cream, and I'm sold on the picture and your beautiful words alone. It's only 9am on a Monday but I'm already fantasizing about eating right out of that bowl! I wish I could try it!
- by Terri Trespicio on Oct 8, 2007 at 9:42 AM | link
So, where does one get this wonderful goat's milk cream? Sounds fabulous.
- by Julia Thorne on Oct 8, 2007 at 8:46 PM | link
That is a tough one. Of course, one way is to marry a goat farmer, or her son. Or you could become a goat farmer. My rabbi just started raising goats this year and seems to be enjoying herself. Here is her blog:
http://blogs.timesunion.com/rebdeb/
But some how I suspect that was not the kind of answer you were hoping for. I am stalling for time here because I would really like to help, but I have never seen goat cream for sale. Any one know of a place a girl can hook herself up with some goat cream?
On another note, Julia, I haven't forgotten your earlier request for an update on the Body and Soul article. I will try to do a post about that in the next week or so. The answer is complicated and I've been thinking about it. (I know, not alway the most highly prized attribute in a blogger, but there you go.)
- by celinabean on Oct 8, 2007 at 9:03 PM | link
Thanks, Celina. Looking forward to your musings about your time at Kripalu. And I love complicated answers!
- by Julia Thorne on Oct 9, 2007 at 2:33 PM | link
Goat whipped cream? Apparently there's also goat's milk iced cream. And now I'm thinking about a goat sundae. Hmm.
- by g on Oct 10, 2007 at 12:13 AM | link
I can't imagine that you can buy goat's milk cream anywhere except from a goat's milk dairy. Which we certainly won't be for a year or two! If it were at Honest Weight Food Co-op, you'd already know, wouldn't you? I'm not sure where you can buy goat's milk around here off the farm.
By the way, we don't pasteurize our goat milk. Keeps just fine for a week or even more, though after 3 or 5 or 7 days it starts tasting a little goaty (which I happen to like). I don't know what accounts for the variation in days -- it may depend on how warm the day was when it was milked, how soon I got it into the refrigerator, how absolutely clean the milk pail or the jar was -- who knows? In any case, we've been drinking it for several months with no problem.
And the cream ... mmm. When you milk, you get foam on top of the milk. And when you pour the milk through the filter into the jar, the foam stays in the funnel. And when I stick my finger in, it's pretty clear that that foam is simply made of cream (which makes sense, what else would make stiff bubbles that would still be there half an hour later?). YUM.
But I haven't had the patience to let the cream separate. The suggestion is to pour the milk into a pie pan or other shallow dish to maximize the surface area for the cream to collect on, then skim it every day (though I suppose you wouldn't have to). And anyway, I'm getting spoiled, drinking whole milk on a regular basis for the first time in my life; want to keep the cream in the milk!
I wonder if pasteurizing changes anything in how the cream rises and collects.
- by Reb Deb on Oct 10, 2007 at 2:20 PM | link
Celina,
Can you please tell me if you chill the goat's milk in fridge or the freezer before you mix it? Do I just mix the cream that forms on top or the whole thing?
Thanks, Katie
- by Katie on Nov 21, 2007 at 4:52 AM | link
The milk has to sit in the fridge for about 3 days before there is enough cream on top to make it worth while skimming. Then I just skim it. I whip it cold straight from the fridge.
- by Esther on Nov 25, 2007 at 2:36 PM | link
I don't know how I came across your posting about goat cheese and whipped cream. But I gotta tell you this. It is PERFECT on sweet potato pie I made for a restaurant I work in Boston during Thanksgiving.
It may seems odd. But I experiment Goat cheese with cheese cake (still mixed with cream cheese) and even Bleu cheese with cheese cake. They were popular,
Just FYI, try adding gelatin to the whipped cream. It will hold up your whipped cream as long as you wrap it tight to prevent it from blowed air in the fridge.
Just dilute gelatin (1 sheet) with 1/4 cup water. This is for a quart of heavy cream
Try that Goat cheese whipped cream on sweet potato pie. It balances really well.
Jitt
- by Jitti C on Dec 8, 2007 at 1:51 AM | link
I have goats milk but I am in altus, Oklahoma. If someone is truly interested in purchasing goats milk I can see what the proper procedure is for shipping milk my mail, frozen of course. as for a goaty taste in the milk, leave the top off the jar until it is cold, about 12 hours. milk is best kept at 38 degrees and we keep our milk for 7 - 10 days before it starts turning funny. you can pasterize ( I dont do this, kills all good bacteria aka microflora that is beneficial in digestion) by bringing the milk to 165 degrees for 15 seconds. dont do it too fast or you will scorch the milk. am interested in cream separation without a machine or how I can build one!?
- by Kristina Kaminshine on May 15, 2008 at 2:38 PM | link
ok so where on earth can i find goat's cream to whip up like that, i've searched all over and can't find anything. Heck i would love to know how to make a simple batch of cream cheese using goats milk. PLEASE HELP!!!
- by mickey alderman on Jul 10, 2008 at 6:31 PM | link
what is the best way to have the cream rise to the top in a timely manner? Seems like it takes too long when you put it in the fridge in a jar.
- by xandra on Aug 16, 2008 at 3:48 PM | link
Unless you have a cream separator, you just have to take the time. If you are one of the folks that doesn't pasteurize, I've heard that pasteurizing it and then cooling it may shorten the time. (I always pasteurize.)
Also, I've heard that if you mix a little cows milk in that that will make it separate faster, but I've never tried it, and I don't know if it is true.
- by Esther on Aug 18, 2008 at 8:34 PM | link