Post by Lannie on Jun 27, 2010 15:34:34 GMT -5
I'm really confused about this. OK, I know different breeds, and different cows within the same breed, will make milk different from each other, but I'm talking about Bandit and Cricket, mother and daughter. Bandit is half Jersey, and Cricket is 3/4 Jersey. Can 1/4 make THAT much difference??
Bandit's milk, even with the cream skimmed off, has FLAVOR. It tastes like REAL milk. Cricket's milk, skimmed, has no flavor. I'm having to leave the cream in it, except for the really heavy stuff at the top, in order to enjoy it. I guess I'll get used to it, but when I finally do, Bandit's milk will probably knock me over. Cricket's milk, right now, has about 2" to 2.5" of cream on each gallon jar, and that's with her holding up for Samantha. That's what I get from Bandit AFTER I've weaned the calf off and am getting all the cream.
And the BUTTER! I just made butter from Cricket's heavy cream (with a little of the lighter cream thrown in) and it took EIGHT minutes to break, in spite of the fact that it was still at about 58 degrees when I started to churn it. Then I had trouble getting the butter out of the churn because there was less than a pint of buttermilk in there (I churned 2 quarts of cream), and I ended up with 50% more butter than if I'd churned 2 quarts of Bandit's cream. When I make butter with Bandit's cream, there's usually a quart of buttermilk, or slightly more, and I can slosh it around in the churn jar to get all the butter globs off the side before pouring it in the strainer. Today, with Cricket's butter, I had to scrape it out.
It's got to be the Hereford. Hereford milk must be very rich, but not have very heavy cream, compared to a Jersey. I always thought Bandit's cream was very good, but it never made a rubbery top on the cream in a closed jar in less than 12 hours. And from 2 quarts of Bandit's cream, I'd usually get about 13 ounces of butter. I just got 19.5 ounces out of *almost* 2 quarts of Cricket's cream. The second quart was half an inch shy of being full. That's truly amazing to me.
Maybe the happy medium will be to mix their milk together once they're both milking at the same time. Then I'll have good cream AND good milk!
~Lannie
Bandit's milk, even with the cream skimmed off, has FLAVOR. It tastes like REAL milk. Cricket's milk, skimmed, has no flavor. I'm having to leave the cream in it, except for the really heavy stuff at the top, in order to enjoy it. I guess I'll get used to it, but when I finally do, Bandit's milk will probably knock me over. Cricket's milk, right now, has about 2" to 2.5" of cream on each gallon jar, and that's with her holding up for Samantha. That's what I get from Bandit AFTER I've weaned the calf off and am getting all the cream.
And the BUTTER! I just made butter from Cricket's heavy cream (with a little of the lighter cream thrown in) and it took EIGHT minutes to break, in spite of the fact that it was still at about 58 degrees when I started to churn it. Then I had trouble getting the butter out of the churn because there was less than a pint of buttermilk in there (I churned 2 quarts of cream), and I ended up with 50% more butter than if I'd churned 2 quarts of Bandit's cream. When I make butter with Bandit's cream, there's usually a quart of buttermilk, or slightly more, and I can slosh it around in the churn jar to get all the butter globs off the side before pouring it in the strainer. Today, with Cricket's butter, I had to scrape it out.
It's got to be the Hereford. Hereford milk must be very rich, but not have very heavy cream, compared to a Jersey. I always thought Bandit's cream was very good, but it never made a rubbery top on the cream in a closed jar in less than 12 hours. And from 2 quarts of Bandit's cream, I'd usually get about 13 ounces of butter. I just got 19.5 ounces out of *almost* 2 quarts of Cricket's cream. The second quart was half an inch shy of being full. That's truly amazing to me.
Maybe the happy medium will be to mix their milk together once they're both milking at the same time. Then I'll have good cream AND good milk!
~Lannie