[Sca-cooks] Cheese, a progress report

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

>The issue I find is that homogenised (unpasturized
>milk is illegal, and un-homogenised milk is hard to find
>cheap and in bulk) leads to poor yields with rennet and
>adding calcium chloride (I get it from my local Greek Bulk
>food warehouse) does a great job at unhomogenising the
>milk...

I'd like to expand on this a bit.

Homogenization is not the same as pasteurization. Pasteurization heats the milk to destroy bacteria, and is often required by law. Some people claim that the natural bacteria of raw milk are beneficial to cheese making, but I've never used it myself. 

Homogenization breaks the fat into small particles so the cream will not separate, and also interferes in cheese making. I've found unhomogenized milk in health food stores here in the States, but like you say, it is more expensive and sometimes hard to find.

Ranvaig