Meat, Eggs & Dairy in your Homestead Kitchen
Animal products are a big part of the homestead kitchen. Unless you are vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs), it’s likely that animal products form a large percentage of your daily meal plan. Animal products might also make up a large percentage of your budget, as buying grass-fed, organic, or sustainably raised animal products can be pricey!
In this module we’ll talk about ways to source sustainably raised animal products, offer a few tutorials on making homemade dairy products at home, and give you ideas on how to stretch your budget when buying meat, eggs and dairy.
Sourcing Meat, Eggs & Dairy
Making your Meat, Eggs, & Dairy Dollars go Further
Raising Animals for the Homestead Kitchen
An Introduction to Cheesemaking
Tutorial: How to Make Butter
Tutorial: How to Make Yogurt
Recipe: Veggie Quiche
Sourcing Meat, Eggs & Dairy
Homesteaders often quip that chickens are the “gateway” animal. And it’s true that chickens tend to lead to ducks, which lead to rabbits, which lead to dairy goats and so on! But not everyone has the space or desire to raise their own laying hens. However, the popularity of backyard chickens means that sourcing sustainably raised eggs is easier than ever – perhaps you even have a neighbor raising hens from whom you can purchase eggs.
Eggs can be found from local farms, backyard homesteads, and at most farmer’s markets. When it comes to finding good eggs, your best bet is to visit the chickens. If the animals are kept indoors year round, chances are you don’t want to eat their eggs. If you see happy chickens poking around on some grass, and a hand-painted sign that says “eggs for sale,” that’s probably a better source. If you are purchasing the eggs from a store or farmer’s market, take a moment to ask a few questions:
- Where are the eggs from?
- What do the chickens eat?
- How much time do they spend outside?
Sustainably sourced meat can be hunted, fished, or raised on a farm. The best meat is antibiotic and hormone free. The animals should have lots of fresh air and time outside and the ability to graze on fresh grass. If you are lucky enough to live near the ocean, there is an abundance of seafood available, but make sure it is healthy for you and healthy for the environment.
You may be fortunate enough to have a nearby grocery store that stocks local meat such as lamb, chicken, beef, goat, or pork (often in the freezer section). If not, one cost-effective way to procure local meat is by purchasing a whole animal or a share of an animal. EatWild.com has a great directory of U.S. based meat farmers, by state. We’ll talk more about this below, and how it can save you money!
Raw milk comes straight from the cow (or goat or sheep). It is a true superfood and it’s also the main ingredient in yogurt, kefir, cheese, butter, and whipped cream.
Raw milk is often not available in stores, but must be sourced directly from farmers. Here is a great resource for finding raw milk in your area: http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/.
With raw milk, you can make your own dairy products like cheese, butter, yogurt, and kefir. If you are looking to purchase cultures for cheese and yogurt, check out Get Culture and Cultures for Health. Both of these companies have great customer support to aid you in your home dairying adventures.
The tutorials in this module will teach you how to make yogurt and butter, and the cheesemaking resource guide will point you toward great resources. (Also, check out Module Two’s mozzarella and ricotta cheese recipes).
Making your Meat, Egg, and Dairy Dollars go Further
Animal products tend to be among the most expensive foods in the homestead kitchen, and rightfully so. To sustainably raise animals for eggs, milk, or meat, the farmer & homesteader must invest months or years in raising the animal, feed it expensive feed, and tend to its health and well-being. The true cost of food is much more apparent when you purchase directly from a farmer, but you have the benefits of supporting local agriculture and knowing exactly where your food is coming from.
Luckily there are several ways to maximize your animal product budget. Here are a few:
- Consider buying an entire animal, rather than the parts
Instead of buying individual cuts, consider purchasing an entire animal, such as a pig or cow. You can make best use of the entire animal, including bones for broth or less tender cuts of meat for soups or stews. If an entire animal is too much meat for your family, many farmers allow ½ or ¼ shares. For instance, Teri’s family buys ¼ cow each September from a local farmer. The total cost is around $500, which breaks down to roughly $5/lb for antibiotic free, grass-fed beef. This amount of meat – about 100 lbs of ground meat, stew meat, and roasts – lasts about 9 months in the freezer.
- Maximize your use of each part of the animal
“Nose to tail” eating has become popular in recent years, as a way of using an entire animal’s meat in a way that is efficient, respectful, and cost-effective. Think of how you might use an entire roasting chicken – you might enjoy a meal of roast chicken, followed by chicken salad for lunch the next day, followed by a chicken broth soup made from the bones and carcass.
- Consider cheaper cuts of meat
Less expensive cuts of meat can get a bad reputation for being tough. However, when you slow roast them in a crock pot or solar oven, they can make delicious soups or stews that are affordable and nourishing.
- Buy local
My local farmers are much less expensive than national brands of meat. In addition, local farms may not always have the money to become Certified Organic, but their practices may be organic. You can talk to your farmer directly and learn these important details. The farm I buy meat from also offers a “Budget Bundle” of meat, which basically excludes steaks. I’m happy to live without steaks to save a few hundred dollars!
Raising Animals for the Homestead Kitchen
Although instruction on how to raise animals is beyond the scope of this course, I want to offer a few ideas on incorporating animals into your homestead or backyard. Raising animals is not something that everyone will have the time or inclination for, but it can save you money and more importantly, it gives you the peace of mind of knowing exactly what is going into the food that you’re eating and serving your loved ones.
The most important considerations for raising animals are going to be time, money, space, and rules and regulations.
- Time– Taking care of animals takes time. Even chickens, which are very easy to care for, require feeding, watering, and occasional coop cleaning. Unless you have your chickens in a predator-proof enclosure, you may also need to let them out of their coop in the morning and put them in in the evening. Forgetting to put the chickens “to bed” can lead to fatalities. Will this create a burden for your work, school, or social schedule?
- Money– Raising your own animals for meat, milk, or eggs can save money…but it also may not. We buy our organic layer feed directly from a grain mill in Iowa, but even so, we’re paying more than $20/50 pound bag of organic feed. Because not all of our chickens are laying at any given time (some are too young, some are molting, a few are roosters, some are just plain lazy!) we spend a lot of money per egg! On the other hand, when we have raised our own GMO-free, pasture raised pork, it was for significantly less money than we would have paid at the grocery store, and we had a year’s supply of lard to offset the cost of oils and butter!
- Space– Are you able to fit animals into your current backyard or property? Which animals are best suited for the space? For instance, in Oregon, our brushy, blackberry-filled pasture was a perfect setting for Alpine dairy goats. But on our Missouri homestead, with its rolling hills and abundant grass, we thought cows to be a better choice. Some homesteaders are able to raise extraordinary numbers of animals on a small space by raising smaller animals such as quail or Nigerian dwarf goats.
- Rules – This can be a source of frustration for homesteaders. But zoning laws, regulations, and codes exist to help keep the peace. So, find out BEFORE you get animals what is allowed and what is not. And remember, a committed group of citizens can always work to change laws!
What Animals Should I Raise for my Homestead Kitchen?
An obvious choice, and one that has become acceptable in most communities, is laying hens for eggs. Many urban areas now allow a limited number of hens (usually not roosters) per backyard. This is great news for those wanting to source ultra-local and delicious eggs for their family!
Another popular small-scale animal is meat rabbits. While I have never raised rabbits myself, they are said to be easy to care for, and of course you know what they say about rabbits and reproduction!
And if you have a bit of wiggle room, consider dairy animals. We have raised both goats and cows and love them both, for different reasons. Currently, we’re breeding our Jersey cow to a mini Jersey bull to try to size down our herd to match our need for milk. Goats are smaller and less expensive, but I sure would miss the cream layer of my cow’s milk!
Ultimately, you just have to find animals that resonate most with your needs and your spirit. When we raised sheep for meat, I felt like I had found a kindred spirit animal. I just loved the personalities and habits of sheep so much! They will definitely be an animal I will raise again, for meat, wool, or both.
Here is a short video of Teri’s grazing animals on her homestead pasture.
Password: animals
AnimalsinPasture from Teri Page on Vimeo.
An Introduction to Cheesemaking
Cheese is one of the most diverse, flavorful, and delicious dairy products you can find, and it’s easy to make certain types of cheese at home. There are two main categories of cheese: Fresh and Aged.
Fresh cheeses take only a day or two to make and are best enjoyed within a week or so of making them, while aged cheeses take time to develop their unique flavor. Because milk is a seasonal product (dairy animals only lactate after they give birth, often in the lush pastures of spring, and have to be “dried down” in their last months of pregnancy), cheese is a great way to preserve milk. When stored in cool conditions, aged cheeses can last for a long time, and many taste better the longer they age!
What ingredients do you need to make cheese?
Milk
The most commonly available milks are from cows and goats. Goat’s milk is naturally homogenized, meaning that the fat globules are evenly distributed throughout the milk; on the other hand, raw, un-homogenized cow milk will develop a cream layer when allowed to sit. Jersey and Guernsey cows are known for their thick cream layers.
Teri’s family has raised Alpine dairy goats and Jersey milk cows; her family routinely makes soft cheese (chevre or fromage blanc), feta, and aged cheddar from their abundant milk. You do not need to own a dairy animal to make cheese, although the results really are best if you’re able to source ultra-fresh, raw milk. If you use store-bought milk, just be sure to avoid milk that is labeled “ultra-pasteurized.”
Culture
Milk will naturally develop bacteria over time, but cultures can be added to encourage certain bacteria or mold to grow, thus imparting particular flavors. Cultures can be purchased from many online stores, including New England Cheesemaking Supply, Cultures for Health, and Hoegger Supply Company.
A note about cheesemaking kits: Many retailers offer cheesemaking kits, with everything you need included and pre-measured. These are a great way to start cheesemaking, but as you get more serious, you’ll want to purchase your cultures and rennet in bulk to save money.
Rennet
Rennet is a naturally occurring substance (found in the stomach lining of an infant ruminant) that contains enzymes to help the baby cow or goat (or sheep, etc.) digest its mother’s milk. In cheesemaking, the enzymes present in rennet help separate the milk solids from the whey (making curds and whey!). Vegetarian rennet is also available (it is derived from a type of mold).
The step-by-step process of cheesemaking is relatively simple, but the details are more complex, and in fact, what distinguish one cheese from the next. But don’t let this scare you from trying a recipe or two – chances are very high that you’ll end up with something edible, and likely very delicious!
The beauty of the Internet is that there are SO many resources for getting started with cheesemaking. I highly recommend a photo or video tutorial that can walk you through each step. Here are a few to get you started!
Hoegger Supply Company’s “The Farmyard” – Tutorials and recipes
30 Minute Mozzarella recipe and tutorial from New England Cheesemaking Supply
Fresh chevre photo tutorial from Cultures for Health
Tutorial: How to Make Butter
Making butter in a jar is one of the easiest and most satisfying activities that you can do in your homestead kitchen, and the taste of fresh homemade butter is so unbelievably good. All it takes is cream, water, salt, and some kitchen equipment that you probably have sitting in your cabinet!
How to Make Butter
1) First, get yourself some cow’s milk cream. Fresh, raw cream is best, but you can certainly try this with heavy cream (avoid ultra-pasteurized cream) from the store. Allow the cream to warm to slightly below room temperature (around 60-70 degrees F is great).
2) Place the cream in a mason jar, ideally no more than 1/3 of the way full. In this photo, we had already started to whip the cream, so it appears to be more full, but you really want to make sure you have plenty of air space for the “butter concussion” or the splashing action that turns cream into butter
3) Put the lid on tight and then SHAKE vigorously!
You will notice the cream start to become more heavy, and thicken, and ultimately the buttermilk will separate from the butter. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour or so, and will go faster if your cream had warmed slightly from refrigerator temperature.
4) You will start to see granules of butter, separated from the buttermilk. The buttermilk will actually “break” from the butter granules, and the liquid will become clear. This is how you will know to stop shaking and proceed to rinsing.
5) Next you will need to “wash” your butter under cool running water. Or you can place the butter into a bowl of clean water, and used two wooden spatulas to press the butter into a solid mass. You can also do this by hand with a kneading motion.
6) Once you have worked the water out of the butter, you can salt it to your liking.
7) Pack the butter into a bowl or butter mold. If any traces of buttermilk remain, the butter will develop an off flavor rather quickly, so I like to keep most of my homemade butter in the freezer and pull out small batches as needed for the table.
Now grab a slice of fresh bread and enjoy this amazing treat!
Tutorial: How to Make Yogurt
Password: homestead kitchen
Yogurt Making from Tatiana Abatemarco on Vimeo.
Recipe: Veggie Quiche
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- 2 cups chopped assortment of vegetables: summer squash, broccoli, chard, basil (use whatever you have handy)
- 1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- Whole wheat crust
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup white flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 stick butter (replace a few tablespoons of butter with lard for a flakier crust)
- 5 Tbs ice water
To make:
- Start with the crust: Stir flour and salt together.
- Cut in butter with pastry cutter or use stand mixer with paddle attachment.
- When mixture is the size of peas, slowly add water until crust comes together into dough when you squeeze it.
- Roll out on a well floured board and transfer to pie plate. I like to fold the crust into 1/4s and then unfold in pie plate.
- Optional: cover the top edge of your crust with foil to keep it from getting too brown in the oven.
- Next spread cheese on the bottom of the crust. This will help seal the quiche from leaks. Next pile on the veggies.
- Beat eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Pour this over the veggies.
- Bake 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. If you put foil on the rim of the crust, remove for the last 10 minutes of baking.