SC - Sabina Welserin Cookbook

[LrdRas@aol.com]

>Hauviette wrote:
>>How do you obtain beestings? Is this available commercially?  Do you have
a
>>cow? I can't imagine finding a cow about to give birth, in order to wait
for
>>the 3rd milking.
>>Is there a reasonable substitution?


And Anahita wrote:
>But the third milking, well, first milking has most of the cream, 2nd
>has less (would that be like 2 per cent milk - in the States here,
>normal milk has 4 per cent cream, then there are 2 per cent, 1 per
>cent, and non-fat available)
>
>So, i'm guessing that third milking would be like 1 per cent...
>Anyone know better?

Well, no, that´s not how it is. I don´t know about the fat percentage but it
is certainly not less than full-fat milk, probably a bit more. Beestings or
colostrum is the milk produced by a cow or other mammal immediately after it
gives birth. It is very different from ordinary milk, for instance it has
much more lactalbumin, and some other substances as well.

Milk from the very first milking after birth is markedly darker and thicker
than ordinary milk and is rarely used undiluted. The second milk is thinner,
the third milk thinner yet, but still thicker than ordinary milk and will
set when cooked. I don´t really know of a substitute - I know curd, set by
various methods, is used as a substitute in the modern Yorkshire curd tart
but the taste at least is markedly different. I can´t offhand recall
anything that tastes like beestings.

I have no idea if it is available commercially in the US, although you might
try a health shop - colostrum is supposed to have healing qualities and
beesting dishes were often used as invalid food in England, or so I´m told.
I can readily buy it frozen here, not in shops though, but at the local
market.

Nanna