#curds and whey

[t1r3dr3pt1l3z]

I want Muffet’s mini so bad it’s so cute 😭😭 and I really love the charity they’re donating to this time.

[vintage-tech]

You used to get Disney records on the tops of cottage cheese.

[chexingtonmixalot]

NON-sexual 🙅🙅🙅 adult👵 sleepovers😴

COMPLETELY PLATONIC 🧼✅ zero contact adult sleep overs 0️⃣0️⃣👌

❌❌❌❌NO SNUGGLING ❌❌❌❌❌

We know it gets out of hand

[wumblr]

and what we're looking for to happen is the courage to separate from the way

[sometransgal]

I keep thinking about that one post that was going around talking about the potential origins of cheese and everyone immediately jumps to it must've been rotten milk that they ate out of desperation. But I'd like to posit that the first cheese was probably someone adding an acid to warmed milk and realising it splits it. Like it's not that big a stretch of the imagination for someone to think "oh I like warm milk but I also like this acidic fruit, I wonder if I can mix them". From there a little experimentation on separating the new curd from the whey and you've got a simple fresh cheese.

I dunno I think the reason I wanted to make this post is just that we tend to desscribe a lot of discoveries around food as desperate acts of starvation and not genuinely thought out experimentations based on observations like every other form of human knowledge. Ancient people weren't stupid starving unwashed masses and it's important to remember that. They were people who could think and deduce and logic their way through things as good as you or I.

[weltato]

Don't think I didn't see your reply to my last ask.

Next question.

Is cheese frozen milk?

Or is milk liquid cheese?

A little unsettling there, but ok.

*puts on the nerd glasses*

"Frozen" means "turn into ice or another solid by extreme cold."

"Molten" means "liquefied by heat."

So, according to science, neither. However...

Cheese is made by churning milk until you get curds and whey. Now I'm just simplifying that down bc I've never made cheese and don't know the exact way to do it but I know that's roughly what happens. The solid bit is the curds and that's what gets turned into cheese/is the cheese.

So technically speaking, in my opinion, cheese could be called "frozen milk" despite not actually being frozen bc it can exist in a fridge quite happily for a while.

But milk is not liquid cheese. That would be cheese sauce.

[fieriframes]

[I'M GONNA ADD... VEGETABLE RENIN, IT'LL SEPARATE THE WHEY AND THE CURD? UH-HUH. STIR FOR 10 TO 15 MINUTES. WANT ME TO STAND IN? YOU GO AHEAD. THE MILK STARTS TO LOOK LIKE WATER. IT'S STARTING TO GET REAL THIN. THIS IS WHERE YOU REALLY NEED TO BE GENTLE WITH IT.]

[najia-cooks]

[ID: Seven yoghurt balls on a plate drizzled with olive oil. The one in the center is plain; the others are covered in mint, toasted sesame seeds, ground sumac, za'tar, crushed red chili pepper, and nigella seeds. End ID]

لبنة نباتية / Labna nabatia (Vegan labna)

Labna (with diacritics: "لَبْنَة"; in Levantine pronunciation sometimes "لَبَنَة" "labanay") is a Levantine cow's, sheep's, or goat's milk yoghurt that has been strained to remove the whey and leave the curd, giving it a taste and texture in between those of a thick, tart sour cream and a soft cheese. The removal of whey, in addition to increasing the yoghurt's tanginess and pungency, makes it easier to preserve: it will keep in burlap or cheesecloth for some time without refrigeration, and may be preserved for even longer by rolling it into balls and submerging the balls in olive oil. Labna stored in this way is called "لبنة كُرَات" ("labna kurāt") or "لبنة طابات" ("labna ṭābāt"), "labna balls." Labna may be spread on a plate, topped with olive oil and herbs, and eaten as a dip for breakfast or an appetizer; or spread on kmaj bread alongside herbs, olives, and dates to make sandwiches.

The word "labna" comes from the Arabic root ل ب ن (l b n), which derives from a Proto-West-Semitic term meaning "white," and produces words relating to milk, yoghurt, nursing, and chewing. The related term "لَبَن" ("laban"; also transliterated "leban") refers to milk in Standard Arabic, but in Levantine Arabic is more likely to refer to yoghurt; a speaker may specify "لَبَن رَائِب‎" (laban rā'ib), "curdled milk," to avoid confusion.

Labna is a much-beloved food in Palestine, with some people asserting that no Palestinian home is without a jar. Making labna tabat is, for many, a necessary preparation for the winter season. However, by the mid-2010s, the continuation of Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip, as well as Israeli military violence, had severely weakened Gaza's dairy industry to the point where almost no labna was being produced. Most of the 11 dairy processors active in Gaza in 2017 (down from 15 in 2016) only produced white cheese—though Mustafa Eid's company Khalij had recently expanded production to other forms of dairy that could be made locally with limited equipment, such as labna, yoghurt, and buttermilk.

Dairy farmers and processors pushed for this kind of innovation and self-sufficiency against deep economic disadvantage. With large swathes of Gaza's arable land rendered unusable by Israeli border policing and land mines, about 90% of farmers were forced by scarce pasture land and low fodder production to feed their herds with increasingly expensive fodder imported from Israel—dairy farmers surveyed in 2017 spent an estimated 87% of their income on fodder, which had doubled in price since 2007. Cattle were thus fed with low quantities of, or low-quality, fodder, resulting in lower milk production and lower-quality milk.

Most dairy processors were also unable to access or afford the equipment necessary to maintain, upgrade, or diversify their factories. Since 2007, Israel has tightly restricted entry into Gaza of items which they consider to have a "dual use": i.e., a potential civilian and military function. This includes medical equipment, construction materials, and agricultural equipment and machinery, and impacts everything from laboratory equipment to ensure safe food supplies to packaging and labelling equipment. Of the dairy products that Gazan farmers and processors do manage to produce, Israel's control over their export can cause huge financial losses—as when Israel prohibited the export of Palestinian dairy and meat to East Jerusalem without warning in March of 2020, costing estimated annual losses of 300 million USD.

In addition to this kind of economic manipulation, direct military violence threatens Gaza's dairy industry. Mamoun Dalloul says that his factory was accused of holding rockets and subsequently bombed in 2008, 2010, 2012, and again in 2014, resulting in repeated moves and the loss of the capability to produce yellow cheese. The Israeli military partially or totally destroyed 10 dairy processing factories, and killed almost 2,000 cows, during its 2014 invasion of Gaza, resulting in an estimated 43 million USD of damage to the dairy sector alone. Damage to cow-breeding farms in 2014 reduced the number of dairy cows to 2,600, just over half their previous number. Damage to, or destruction of, wells, water reservoirs, water tanks, and the Gaza Power Plant's fuel tank exacerbated pre-existing problems with producing cattle feed and with the transportation, processing, and refrigeration of dairy products, leading to spoiled milk that had to be disposed of. Repeated offensives made dairy processors reluctant to re-invest in equipment that could be destroyed at any time.

Israeli industry profits by making Gazan self-sufficiency untenable. Israeli goods entering Palestine are not subject to import taxes, and Israeli dairy companies are not dealing with the contaminated water, limited electricity, high costs of feed, out-of-date and expensive-to-repair equipment, and scarce land (some companies, such as Tnuva, purchase milk from farms on illegal settlements in the West Bank) with which Gazan producers must contend. The result is that the local market in Gaza is flooded with imports that are cheaper, more diverse, and of higher quality than anything that local producers can offer. Many consumers believe that Israeli products are safer to eat.

Nevertheless, Gazans continue building and rebuilding. Despite significant decreases in ice cream factories' production after the imposition of Israel's blockade in 2007, Abu Mohammad noted in 2015 that locally produced ice cream was cheaper and more varied than Israeli imports. In 2017, the amount of dairy sold in 74 shops in Gaza that was sourced locally, rather than from Israel, had increased from 10% to 60%. Ayadi Tayyiba, the region's first factory with an all-woman staff, opened in 2022; it produced cheese, yoghurt, and labna with sheep's milk from affiliated farms. However, demand for sheep's milk products has decreased in Gaza due to its higher production costs, leading the factory to supplement its supply with purchased cow's milk.

The current Israeli genocidal offensive on Gaza has caused damage of the same kind as—though to a greater extent than—previous shellings and invasions. Lack of ability to sell milk that had already been produced to factories, as well as lack of access to electricity, caused an estimated 35,000 liters of milk to spoil daily in October of 2023.

Support Palestinian resistance by calling Elbit System’s (Israel’s primary weapons manufacturer) landlord, donating to Palestine Legal's activist defense fund, and donating to Palestine Action’s bail fund.

Equipment:

A blender

A kettle or pot, to boil water

A cheesecloth or tea towel

Ingredients:

1 cup (130g) cashews (soaked, if your blender is not high-speed)

3/4 cup filtered or distilled water, boiled

1-3 vegetarian probiotic capsules (containing at least 10 billion cultures total)

A few pinches sea salt

More water, to boil

Arabic-language recipes for vegan labna use bulghur, almonds, or cashews as their base. This recipe uses cashew to achieve a smooth, creamy, non-crumbly texture, and a mild taste like that of cow's milk labna. You might try replacing half the cashews with blanched almonds for a flavor more similar to that of sheep's or goat's cheese.

Make sure your probiotic capsules contain no prebiotics, as they can interfere with the culture. The probiotic may be multi-strain, but should contain some of: Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium bifidus, Lactobacillus acidophilus. The number of capsules you need will depend on how many cultures each capsule is guaranteed to contain.

Instead of probiotic capsules, you can use a speciality starter culture pack intended for use in culturing vegan dairy, many of which are available online. Note that starter cultures may be packaged with small amounts of powdered milk for the bacteria to feed on, and may not be truly vegan.

If you want a mustier, goat-ier taste to your labna, try replacing the water with rejuvelac made with wheat berries.

You can also start a culture by using any other product with active cultures, such as a spoonful of vegan cultured yoghurt. If you have a lot of cultured yoghurt, you can just skip to straining that directly (step 5) to make your labna—though you won't be able to control how tangy the labna is that way.

Instructions:

This recipe works by blending together cashews and water into a smooth, creamy spread, then culturing it into yoghurt, and then straining it (the way yoghurt is strained to make labna). It's possible that you could skip the straining step by adding more cashews, or less water, to the yoghurt to obtain a thicker texture, but I have not tested the recipe this way.

1. If your blender is not high-speed, you will need to soak your cashews to soften them. Soak in filtered or distilled water for 2-4 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge. Rinse them off with just-boiled water.

2. Boil several cups of water and use the just-boiled water to rinse your blender, tamper, measuring cups, the bowl you will ferment your yoghurt in, and a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir. Your bowl and stirring implement should be in a non-reactive material such as wood, clay, glass, or silicone.

3. Make the yoghurt. Blend cashews with 3/4 cup just-boiled water for a couple of minutes until very smooth. Transfer to your bowl and allow to cool to about skin temperature (it should feel slightly warm if dabbed on the inside of your wrist). If the mixture is too hot, it may kill the bacteria.

4. Culture the yoghurt. Open the probiotic capsules and stir the powder into the cashew paste. Cover the bowl with a cheesecloth or tea towel. Ferment for 24 hours: on the countertop in summer, or in an oven with the light on in winter.

Taste the yoghurt with a clean implement (avoid double-dipping!). Continue fermenting for another 12-24 hours, depending on how tangy you want your labna to be. A skin forming on top of the yoghurt is no problem and can be mixed back in. Discard any yoghurt that grows mold of any kind.

5. Strain the yoghurt to make labna. Place a mesh strainer in a bowl, making sure there's enough room beneath the strainer for liquid to collect at the bottom of the bowl; line the strainer with cheesecloth or a tea towel, and scoop the cultured yoghurt in. Sprinkle salt over top of the yoghurt. Fold the towel or cheesecloth back over the yoghurt, and add a small weight, such as a ceramic plate or a can of beans, on top.

You can also tie the cheesecloth into a bag around a wooden spoon and place the wooden spoon across the rim of a pitcher or other tall container to collect the whey. The draining may occur less quickly without the weight, though.

Strain in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours, depending on the desired texture. I ended up draining about 2 Tbsp of whey.

6. If not making labna balls: Put in an airtight jar, and add just enough olive oil to cover the surface of the labna. Store in the fridge for up to two months.

7. To form balls (optional): Oil your hands to form the labna into small balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. They may still be quite soft.

Optionally sprinkle with, or roll in, dried mint, za'tar, sesame seeds, nigella seeds (القزحة), ground sumac, or crushed red chili pepper, as desired.

Optionally, for firmer balls, lightly cover with another layer of parchment paper and then a kitchen towel, and leave in the refrigerator to dry for about a day.

Place labna balls in a clean glass jar and add olive oil to cover. Retrieve labna from the jar with a clean implement. They will last in the fridge for about a year.

[dreadwedge]

wow. I really am the premiere new york city street vendor of specifically curds and whey. if you eat my curds you will agree. if you eat my whey you will agree. if you were to perch upon my tuffet you would be amazed by the premium material which sets me above the rest, the common curdsmongers and whey stands with inferior with only uncomfrtable pleather tuffets upon which tyop perch when patronizing their unremarkable (spiderless) whey stands. you would say "i am amazed by the taste." you would say "i am amazed by the premium tuffet material". you would say "i am amazed by the spider". you would say "wow. you really are the premiere new york city street vendor of curds and whey. i have et of your curds and I agree. I have et of your whey and i know it to be true.

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Ruby: Hmm~ Good morning Weiss- What're you eating?

Weiss: Cottage Cheese and yogurt.

Ruby: Like. Mixed together?

Weiss: Yes. Together. The yogurt adds a nice sweetness and thickens the whey, while the curds add texture and variance. It's quite nice, light, and simple.

Ruby: ... Huh.

[grootficguy]

just bought some curds and whey. gonna be a wild one in the Tuffet household this weekend.

[tolkienreader1996]

So we accidentally used a deep fryer thermometer which isn’t as accurate and heated it up to quickly so the cheese curds wouldn’t set.

So we didn’t make mozzarella, we made ricotta.

We got a lot a whey from it tho, with which we can make more ricotta.

This isn’t a failure, we did make really good cheese (not the one we were hoping for but it is what it is) this is a learning experience.

[cakemoney]

i'm still only a little bit into the ending fight (for neverafter for those watching me watch at home) but i am like. the rational part of me understands that attacking the princesses' philosophical justifications (especially in the heat of battle where rational thought would be pretty impaired) is simply not going to be as effective at changing people's minds as an offer of hope that it doesn't have to be this way. that is in fact true in real life as well. but like. somebody needs to point out that the princesses are fundamentally no different than the stepmother or the fairies. all you are doing is deciding what's best for other people without asking them. all you are doing is lashing out from your own rage and trauma and the people who suffer the consequences will be innocents, and you don't care. like take two seconds and tell me why little miss muffet and her lonely curds and whey deserve to be and should be and must be wiped from existence, with no one to remember her or her town full of adults who have strictly nonsexual sleepovers. tell me why if the itsy bitsy spider decides to keep climbing up after being washed down again and again its entire life, you should be the one to decide that they don't get to try one more time. look me in the eye man. all you care about is yourself, because you were raised as royalty, and you believe you deserve better, and you believe you are better than everyone else and the world revolves around you, and you believe that your feelings and your pain and your suffering are more important than those of normal people, farmers, peasants, families throughout the realms who, despite having no name and no power and no book and no destiny, despite eking out miserable existences in constant downpours or under threat of being crushed by giants or being forced to use old moldy shoes left by giants as houses, still choose to keep living. do people stop falling in love because the times are bad? do children stop being born, growing up, making friends, making art, scraping their knees when they trip but then getting up again, because the skies are dark? none of their memories and joys, none of their stories and bonds, no matter how brief, are worth preservation? all of their lives are worth nothing because you said so? you wanna run that one by me again buddy

[gardenofdelete998]

Tyler Durden beast of burden eating his curds and whey

edward norton playing horton dr seuss on broadway

[maculategiraffe]

the baby's preschool teacher just sent us a video I wish I could show y'all but instead I will describe it. it is of the baby sitting on a stool with a plastic bowl and spoon placidly miming eating as the teacher says "...eating his curds and whey"

then she says "along came a spider and sat down beside him" while approaching him with a little toy spider, and he grins with anticipation without looking up from his bowl

and she says "and frightened--" and he gives an incredibly authentic sounding "AAAAAAHHH!!!" that drowns out her next words as he leaps up and flees off screen

[boimann]

you probably eat curds & whey

adding these to my list of asks that sent me on a quest to understand what they were referring to