Why won’t my Milk Go Off?

I have always (slightly) believed that whilst Best Before Dates can be ignored Use By Dates should be adhered to. At least that is what I always advise others, to be honest I use my senses and brain to assess the situation for myself which is how I came to be using ten days out of date milk this morning.

Whilst making our hot drinks I had a strokey chin ponder, as I often do, about Use by Dates.  Even though this milk is so very much past its date it tastes fine and doesn’t separate when heated – there is absolutely nothing wrong with it!  At first I was impressed but now I am a little suspicious.  Wtf has happened to this milk to make it so indestructible?

So I looked up what others think about it …

According to the Daily Mail

“Pasteurised milk will keep 50 per cent longer if you store it at a lower temperature. Try storing at the back of the fridge rather than the fridge door.”

However I always keep the milk in the door so it’s not that.

Rose Gray of the River Café says …

"If it's past its use-by date it's inferior, it has started to deteriorate in one way or another. It doesn't mean you can't eat it. It just means it's not as good for you, or won't taste as nice."

I’m not sure about this one – my real man is a bit of a super-taster (in fact he's super in lots of ways) and can taste the slightest change in flavour and he says it is fine.

According to the Beeb …

“Milk will smell or taste bad long before it makes you sick”

… which is as I thought.

A chap called Dr Slim Dinsdale, who is an independent food safety and quality consultant, says lots of things on the matter but one that really resonates with me is …

"People don't make their own judgments, I see that as a retrograde step."

So that’s enough quoting (almost – see below!)

What I really, really want to know is why is my milk not going off? Seriously - any ideas?

In Other News ...

Somewhat related to the above I received lovely review of The Leftovers Handbook recently, there is quite a lot of it but the first paragraph pretty well says it all …

“I am a proud owner of your book, which was just delivered today, and wanted to tell you I am thrilled to bits with it! Honestly, I have quite a few books at home and quite of them are the "bible" type all-in-books, but I have the feeling yours will be the only one to be referred to time after time after time after time. I don't mean to belittle the work of Jamie, Hugh, Gordon, Nigel etc. etc., however I am in love with this book because it sort of reminds us what "back to basics" should look like.”

How to make Cheese from Sour Milk

On our recent trip down from Scotland the milk which we had in the cooler bag turned seriously sour and separated so I thought I'd have a go, my first ever, at making cheese.  I am very pleased indeed with the results.  Here are some loose instructions  ...

How to make cheese ...

~   Warm the milk, together with all its lumps, gently till it separates even more into yellow watery stuff and bigger lumps.

~   Turn off the heat and allow to sit for about 10 minutes.
~   Whilst it is sitting scald a piece of cheesecloth (or similar) with boiling water, to make sure it is uber-hygienic, and wring out. Line a strainer with the cheesecloth and set it over a capacious bowl. 

~   Pour the mixture into the strainer and leave to drain for several minutes - there is a surprising amount of liquid, which I threw away although there is probably something terribly interesting I could have done with it!

~   After a while carefully lift the edges of the cheesecloth, tie them together and dangle the whole doo-hickey from a door handle or something and over a bowl so that it can drip for a while.  A gentle squeeze is neither necessary or recommended.

~   When you have a firm-ish lump in the cloth cut it down and chill it.

I ended up with a block of crumbly fresh cheese - voila ...

I cut off a fifth of the cheese and set it aside for later.  To the rest I added enough double cream to make a soft cheese and salt and pepper to make a tasty one.  I then divided that into four and added some flavourings ...

~   Black Garlic - a clove of this lovely stuff chopped and mashed into the cheese.

~   Heavily Peppered - just lots of freshly ground peppercorns.

~   Sweet Chilli - as it name suggests, just the addition of sweet chilli sauce.

~   Fresh Basil - we have green and purple basil so I added a bit of both.

I'm afraid I can't give quantities here for these; you'll just have to taste and feel as you go. The first three cheeses I ate for lunch with crackers and a glass of red, they were all good and the black garlic was my favourite.

 

For dinner I had Chorizo and Basil Pizza using the basil cheese which melted softly as Boursin does and tasted excellent.

You will remember I set aside a fifth of the fresh cheese as I had a cunning plan; to try making chocolate cheese, inspired by something made by Philadelphia cheese.  

I mixed a spoonful each of cocoa powder and dark brown sugar to a paste with a few drops of hot water and then stirred it into the cheese a little at a time till it tasted good, which it did.  Amazingly I then found that with the addition of either vanilla extract or cognac it tasted even better!

As you can see from the picture it still had a cottage cheese type texture but perhaps it if I had whisked or processed it that would have smoothed out.  Instead I just ate it!

I have loads more ideas for flavouring fresh cheese; roasted garlic, lemon and parsley, chilli and orange, and so on.  It's almost worth taking some milk for another long scenic drive or perhaps I'll just buy plain Philly and play with it!

For more delicious ideas for coping with leftovers see my book, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers, in which I give every idea, recipe, handy hint, storage info and more that I can think of for 450 potential leftover foods. 

Great Preview Here