Adventures in Dairy, Part 2

Needing something to put the last of my homemade butter on, I whipped up some scones. Start to finish they take maybe 25 minutes.

2 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1/3 c shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c milk
1 t vanilla
splash of milk for brushing on top

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut shortening into mixture with whisk until the flour is grainy and not too lumpy. Add the liquids and combine to form a dough. It will be a little sticky. Pat it into a circle about 3/4" thick on a cutting board. Cut into eight wedges and transfer to a baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, sprinkle with a little sugar, and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with butter, jam and tea. Makes 8 scones.

While they were baking I plunked a lovin' spoonful of Swiss plum preserves into a cup of plain yogurt. Try it. I dare you.

My first try at cheesemaking was a rollercoaster of success. I started with a gallon of milk, at one point had 8 pounds of collapsed curds and whey, and ended up with a bowl of cottage cheese, a cup of ricotta, half a gallon of wasted whey, and half a pound of cow's milk feta that right now is happily pickling until Saturday.

The cottage cheese went straight into my belly. No passing Go, no $200, just spoon to mouth.

I tried to coax a bunch of ricotta out of the half gallon of whey, but it wasn't acidified enough, or not heated enough, or I disturbed it too much, who knows. It really looked indecent.

The other ricotta went into a pasta dish whose credit must go to this page. It was delicious, full of raw garlic and cheese. I left out the marjoram and added grape tomatoes, which, according to acclaimed cheese connoisseur Adeline D. Phelps, added "depth of flavor" and "texture." It's true.

I'm trying an experiment with yogurt cheese. I skimmed the cream off of a container of Brown Cow Cream Top yogurt and put it over raspberries. That was pretty amazing, similar to the cream of Gruyere, but with a yogurt tang.

To the remaining yogurt I've added a quarter tablet of rennet dissolved in water, hoping to get some yogurt cheese. More on that later.