I may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that oxen were castrated bulls.
Not always, it seems.
Well, this is interesting!
Cheese by types of milk:
buffalo milk
cow and buffalo milk
cow and ewe milk
cow and goat milk
cow and reindeer milk
cow ewe and goat milk
cow milk
cow or ewe milk
ewe and camel milk
ewe and goat milk
ewe milk
ewe or goat milk
goat milk
mare milk
yak milk
http://www.cheese.com/milk.asp
go to the website, click on the milk type, and it’ll tell you what cheeses are made from the milk. Sadly, it is incomplete, but it is a start.
OK, so far we’ve got:
Cow (duh!)
Sheep
Goat
Camel
Mare
Yak
Moose
Reindeer
Horse
Water Buffalo
Zebra
Caribou
Ass
and Canadians :dubious:
Any other ungulate candidates? (I don’t think canadians are ungulates)
Any cheeses from non-ungulates? And if not, why not?
Juustoleipa, here is a cheese made with reindeer (and cow) milk. It took a bit to find the name of the cheese, I could find mention of “Laplander cheese made from reindeers” easily enough, but not the name of the cheese itself.
Here is a cheese from England, that puports to be made from “buffalo”, but I’m not sure if they mean “water buffalo” or “bison”. (Probably water buffalo.)
Well, I am intrigued by the idea of bison cheese. I pass a bison farm just about every day. I actually called to ask them about cheese, but I only got an answering machine. I’m willing to ask stupid questions over the phone, but I’m not really willing to leave my name and number to do so. Maybe I’ll try again later.
My WAG is twofold. One, ungulates tend to be large and therefore large-quantity milk producers. According to an article by Dan Savage on the possibilities of human breast milk (not work safe, but here you go: villagevoice.com/people/0208,savage,32448,24.html) it would take 4 days for a human woman to produce enough breast milk for a pound of cheese. Much less time for a large animal intending to feed a large, fast growing baby.
Secondly, ungulates all have udders of some sort, don’t they? As a breast-milk pumping mom, lemme tell you, pumping breasts sucks. And not in an effective way. The rounded shape of the breast means that the machine can’t do an effective job of stripping the milk from the body of the breast - it has to simply suck it from the tip. On the udder hand (ha! I crack myself up!), a milking machine or hand for an udder can strip along the length of the milk ducts, removing milk much more effectively. It might just simply not be worth it to invest the time and energy pumping milk from non-uddered animals.
Dolphin milk cheese? whale milk cheese? walrus milk cheese? I fthe Canadians are burying cheese in bodies of water, then why not a cheese where the animal does the submerging herself?
I, for one, am NOT eating ass cheese.
:eek:
Good point.
What’s it taste like, I wonder?
Cheese.
One of the things the cheesemaker Savage interviewed for that column I linked to says is that cheese flavor depends more on what you do to the milk with bacteria, temperature and flavorings, than it’s original source. (Then again, he thinks breast milk must taste “awful” becaise women eat meat, so what does he know - breast milk actually tastes like melted ice cream…ok, that might have been TMI.)
Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay?
I can say my daughter has been quite disappointed with what happens to my wife’s breastmilk after I carry it around in a bottle on a hot day. It easily churns to butter, so I’m sure I could make cheese if I were so inclined.
My wife might object, though.
What? No love for Bosda’s answer?
Hey, Bosda, I loved your answer!
I found a cheese called Lappi. It didn’t give it’s source milk. I was trying to find cheeses in places like Russia and Alaska. I ended up in Lapland.
I found out two things.
-
The Mexican’s probably have a Sow cheese. Sow as in porcine or pig. Here’s a recipe using Sow Cheese and a few very bizarre ingredients. http://www.unicornjelly.com/cuisine11.htm
-
Long chain fatty acids are not as good for cheese making or taste. Short chain fatty acids are great for making cheese and flavor.
When Plains Indians killed a nursing bison calf they’d cut open the stomach and eat the cheese that had formed there. I’m sure they had a name for it, but am unable to find it.
Oxen are simply cattle, so we eat ox cheese all the time.
Some humans make toe cheese. You couldn’t get me to eat it, but then I’m not shopping for Stinking Bishop, either! (A Curse of the Were-Rabbit reference.)
Is there such thing as dog cheese?
[red dwarf]
HOLLY: We ran out of cow’s milk months ago. You’ve been drinking dog’s milk.
RIMMER: Dog’s milk!
HOLLY: Nothing wrong with dog’s milk! It lasts longer than any other kind of milk, dog’s milk!
LISTER: Why?
HOLLY: 'Cause no bugger’ll drink it! And it tastes the same when it’s fresh as when it’s gone off!
[/rd]