more on human cheese
tripp
::08 mar 2007 :: 05:37pm
so a quick look on the goog turns up some links:
1. this woman tried it, failed and says 'it won't curdle, don't try'.
i don't like her attitude. quitter.
2. wikipedia says basically the same thing, though with less certainty.
the consensus seems to be that curdling is a major obstacle. i don't doubt the fact, i just doubt that you can't find a protein replacement.
3. this text document says that vinegar might work as an agent. but its hypothetical. another idea here is to use rennet.
4. dan savage says:
"If you can get your hands on some fresh human breast milk, here's a simple cheese recipe from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (www.cheesemaking.com): Take your milk, put it in a bowl, and add some rennet (an animal derivative that contains an enzyme called rennin), which will cause the solids in your milk to clump up into curds. Then drain off the liquid, and serve the solids. Voilà! You're eating breast milk cheese!"
looks like adding rennet might be the way to go — afterall, i don't care if it is vegan or not. hm.
andrea? matthew? eric? who wants to try first? cause seriously, you pack that stuff in something cold and fed ex it to me, i'll totally eat it. and take pictures.
Rennet is something that you add to the mixture _after_ you get the whey and the milkfat (which later becomes cheese) to separate. The amount and type of rennet (there are vegetarian rennets available) is a part of what controls how hard the cheese is going to be afterward. But you still have to separate the cheese. Vinegar, lemon juice - all of that just starts the separation (along with heating the milk). But the fact remains that you don't have the right kind of protein or enough milkfat to do it. Mixing it with other milk as Keren suggested might work fine, you do that with other types of cheese, but I doubt it will work with human breast milk. The other type of protein and fat (that which is added) will probably separate but they you are likely as not going to find your self with animal milk cheese curds with the animal milk whey floating around with the human milk. When you pour off the whey then you'll just have regular cheese. Sorry dudes, I really don't think anything mentioned will work. (I don't know where Savage got his expertise, but I'm betting there might be other human fluids than just breast milk in whatever he's got going on…, and no, that probably won't make cheese either.)
Rennet is something that you add to the mixture _after_ you get the whey and the milkfat (which later becomes cheese) to separate. The amount and type of rennet (there are vegetarian rennets available) is a part of what controls how hard the cheese is going to be afterward. But you still have to separate the cheese. Vinegar, lemon juice - all of that just starts the separation (along with heating the milk). But the fact remains that you don’t have the right kind of protein or enough milkfat to do it. Mixing it with other milk as Keren suggested might work fine, you do that with other types of cheese, but I doubt it will work with human breast milk. The other type of protein and fat (that which is added) will probably separate but they you are likely as not going to find your self with animal milk cheese curds with the animal milk whey floating around with the human milk. When you pour off the whey then you’ll just have regular cheese. Sorry dudes, I really don’t think anything mentioned will work. (I don’t know where Savage got his expertise, but I’m betting there might be other human fluids than just breast milk in whatever he’s got going on…, and no, that probably won’t make cheese either.)
Seriously…you guys want to make me vomit, don't you?
can we make you want to eat the cheese?
And now I am vomiting.
wellum.. please try it with rennet, i'd be interested to know whether i would work! Quitter? At least I have tried making it when I make a judgment that it's not doable.. I used vinegar tho, haven't tried it with rennet. So please do try to make one with rennet, and let us know the result. I said "don't try to make human cheese", it's because i felt really bad having to throw away more than one gallon of my breastmilk which i have pumped for months. Breastmilk pumping is really hardwork, it's expensive (effort) and i think that one should use it very very prudently. I should've tried to make cheese with only one quart of my milk rather than throwing in one gallon into it. Then i would have another quart to try with rennet.. So i hope i have made myself pretty clear about what i mean with "don't try.." and it's not really an attitude problem. Now my milk production had decreased and I couldn't have enough milk for another cheese experiment, and I sort-of regretted that I have wasted my gallon of milk on the first experiment. I hope i have made my statements and position clearer.
I really like the direction this site is headed toward.
fine people. i'm donating my boobie milk. fuck it. we'll try it and then we can all say for certain what is myth and what is fact. it will still be a couple of months, but i believe you all can wait if i am the willing cow here. moo. it will assuredly be disgusting and probably won't work, indeed, but i'm sure with all my time at home i can at least create a lovely ill attempt at boobcheese. just for you, trippy… just for you…
Does it count as a bio-hazard if you try to ship it?
And does anyone else feel a little guilty at the thought? If someone is lucky enough to have extra milk, it seems that it should go to a donor bank for hungry babies rather than into the fat tummies of mog-ers. I guess its only a limited batch…
I'm thinking perhaps, just perhaps, someone should try making regular cheese first…THEN dive into the human cheese gambit.
That said, I'm really surprised that seperation or fat content is the limiting factor here, as I know ours seperated quite well after a few hours in the fridge and was thick with that nice fat. I teased that she expressed Haagen Daas. Which might explain why our 9-month old weighs 24 pounds…
Perhaps one of the problems overall is the anti-microbial nature of human breast milk. Hmm.
Again: ice cream. easy to make and seriously, if I had to choose between eating ice cream and cheese, really, no contest.
Oh, and I'm really hoping all this is in jest. Lisa, seriously, any excess you have you should freeze for the baby later. Breastfeeding is great if you can do it, plus, it'll save you about $100 a month on formula. Make sure you get a good pump (for both sides) so you aren't on call every three hours. =)
rani
my comment about your attempt was a joke — the very fact you tried puts you up on my list of cool people. matthew was trying to break my heart with the whole thing and i am not to be deterred. and, if nothing else, we will learn from your experiences.
thanks for defending yourself — i really meant no slander.
It is my single goal in life, apparently according to some, to take Trippy's hopes and dreams and drag them through the logical muck of physics and biochemistry.
I now add Ray to the haters list(s)… ;)
Not to gross everyone out - but when I think of curdling human milk to make cheese, I only think about yeast infections. That alone makes me disinterested in tasting female bi-products in general.
Also, a friend in college told me a story about a friend that went down on his girlfriend and didn't know that she had a yeast infection. He therefore got a yeast infection in his throat (I don't even know if that's possible!) and earned his nickname - Doughboy.
Matthew,
Question: I'm on the haters list because of the "should seperate/have enough fat" comment, or because I told Lisa not to give him any? Just wasn't sure if I was on the same list as you (bringing it down on Tripp) or on the other (people who see it as your single goal in life).
And still: ice cream. Who doesn't like ice cream? (Minus those with lactose intolerances, obv.)
Raymus, you are on the list because you keep feeding the argument that this could be possible when I'm telling you, and betting the last small wheel of cheddar I made, that it ain't. You probably shouldn't be on that list because you enable me to keep bringing Tripp's idea and obsession down after every attempt to buoy his spirit. :)
Well, hey, who's the only person waving the ice cream banner here, huh? I've been saying from the outset cheese is a waste of time, regardless of whether or not its possible. =)
Matt,
My first reaction when i read your comment betting the cheddar wheel was "ooh, can I taste your cheddar?" and then, given the context of this "conversation" I realized that that might be considered wildly innapropriate. I thought I'd share the thought anyway.