Goat’s Milk and It’s Cheesy Story: Part IV

Here’s some practical, albeit less whimsical, goat cheese info. Just some things you’d like to know about storage, types, etc etc etc. Etc.

And maybe one more etc. For good measure.

Goat cheese does not mean chèvre. Goat’s milk can be made into hard, aged cheeses or semi-soft cheeses. There are a huge variety of cheeses that range from strong and pungent to delicate and mild in odor and flavor. Their textures can be creamy, crumbly, or semi-firm.

I've used this image before, but I think it's beautiful. Also, you can see the variety.

The definition of cheese, according to the Agriculture Handbook, is “a product made from milk in which protein is coagulated and concentrated, accompanied by milk fat trapped in the curd” (http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/goatdairy.htm). Agriculture Handbook, No. 54, lists over 400 varieties and 800 names of goat cheeses.

Goat’s Milk and It’s Cheesy Story: Part III

Finally we come to the point of this whole series: goat cheese.

It's all goat cheese, all the time.

Cheese making is one of the first processes nomadic cultures discovered for preserving food. Processed milk (a fancy way of saying cheese) was eaten as early as 6500 B.C and evidence of milk byproducts have been discovered in Stone Age Turkish pottery. The first cheeses were made from sheep and goat’s milk. Later, other mammalian milks were used, such as donkey and zebu milks.

Tell me I'm not the only one who thought a zebu resembled a zebra.

A Discovery and An Apology

Oh goodness.

I’ve been really busy. I don’t want to make excuses, but have you ever noticed how when it rains, it pours? Well, I’ve got some good rain going on. Jobs, blogs, twitters, and facebooks galore. But today I’m going to get back to what I love. This blog, right hurr.

So please forgive my inactivity. It shall be remedied.

This is not what I've been doing. I would never drink a Bud Light.

While I will be posting the conclusion to Goat’s Milk and It’s Cheesy Story in a few days, I wanted to share this first. It’s my dream museum.

It’s the Museum of Food and Drink in New York City.

Here is the museum’s mission, as posted on their website:

“The Museum of Food and Drink is a private, nonprofit, corporation dedicated to educating its visitors about the history, culture, production, commerce and science of food. The museum’s goal is to become the country’s best food educator -an establishment that encourages a well-rounded understanding of what we eat and why we eat it. This is a museum everyone can and should appreciate: Food is culture, and The Museum of Food and Drink shows why.”

This is exactly what I dream my blog will be one day. I’m jealous that they were much better at wording their intentions than I was.

I’m excited about this. The museum isn’t open yet, but they’re getting themselves ready for it. They want themselves to be the Smithsonian of food. I want them to be, too.

Keep eating and asking, my friends.

Esther