Rani woke up one morning in Singapore with an idea – why not make paneer from the left over breast milk that was sitting in her freezer? [via BoingBoing] No, I’m not kidding:
Basically this is human cheese. Why would I do that?Well, basically, there are about twenty bags (each 150ml) of frozen breastmilk in the fridge, and they have passed their three months drinkability period, which means I would not be able to donate the milk like I did before. But the milk is still less than six month old, which is the actual expiry date.
So what do I do with it? I could make cream soup like I did several months ago. But I really wanted to try something different, and making Breast Milk Paneer sounds really exciting. [Link]
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p>I was a bit weirded out when I started reading this. Human milk is clearly a bodily fluid, it can even transmit HIV. Emotionally, it feels very different from cows milk, even though both come from teats so that mammals can feed their young.
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p>I mean, when you’re eating brie you don’t say “I’m having moldy bovine bodily secretions” because you don’t deconstruct cheese. Human breast milk cheese, on the other hand, lays the process bare.
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p>I also was uneasy at the idea that she was wasting something that precious, but interestingly enough, her motive for making the paneer was to avoid wasting any of the precious fluids. Given that she had frozen breast milk that she couldn’t use and couldn’t donate, wouldn’t it be less wasteful to eat it than throw it out? My curiousity overpowered my discomfort and I kept reading.
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p> You know how to make paneer, right? You boil the milk and then you add something acidic to start the curdling process:
Just like when I’m making paneer, I added lemon juice at just the right time when it boils. Then I stirred the milk, waiting until curdle was formed. I waited, and waited, and waited, no curdle was formed although the milk turned a bit more yellow. So I added more lemon juice, this is what I usually do if the cow milk does not curdle. I added and added and added more lemon juice until I ran out of lemons, and I stirred and stirred and stirred, but the milk stood still.
Out of desperation because I ran out of lemons, I pour in a dash of vinegar too. Still, no change to the milk. I became really desperate and pour the whole bottle of vinegar! Nothing happened. [Link]
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p>At this point Rani had a big smelly mess which she couldn’t salvage, and in fact had to dump. There’s a reason why she failed, and why nobody else has made human milk cheese before … it’s not possible!
It turned out that breast milk can not curdle, because the protein content is lower, and because the protein in breast milk is more easily digested compared to cow’s milk. That’s why, unmodified cow’s milk is unsuitable for babies. And on the other hand, adding acid to further ‘digest’ breastmilk protein won’t curdle the milk.
So, the moral of the story, YOU CANNOT MAKE CHEESE OUT OF BREASTMILK. Don’t even try. [Link]
You’ve just read a cheesy post about mammaries – while it has kept you abreast of science, don’t you feel like a boob 
?
…but if you could, i’d buy it.
ok, that grossed me out..I have been in the unenviable position of having to throw my breastmilk out when it passed the 3 month threshold as well, it was very depressing to do it..but making cream soup??!! out of it or paneer..ok that just grossed me out, I am sorry, no offence..
You’ve just read a post this cheesy about mammaries – while you’ve stayed abreast of science, don’t you feel like a boob?
Heh. So how long have you been waiting to trout this line out, Ennis? 😉
You can make paneer out of goat milk, too. In case you have any extra lying around…
i don’t know why that grosses me out, since it’s just milk from another animal. but it does. it also makes sense that breastmilk has a higher protein content – babies always stay fuller longer when they drink it than with formula.
I’m milking it for all I can 😉
Dude!! This is gross. Reading this is making the milk in my stomach that I had sometime back churn and turn into paneer.
“it also makes sense that breastmilk has a higher protein content – babies always stay fuller longer when they drink it than with formula.”
babies stay fuller on breastmilk because of the high fat content, not the protein content. protein is important but not essential for achieving satiety after a meal, as long as there’s enough fat in the food.
Speaking of gross … Can anyone verify if this is true or an urban legend: – the tradition of using the placenta to create a dish for consumption a after birth?
Sorry to gross you out on a Friday but this seems kinds connected….
The thought of paneer/yogurt/ice cream etc from human milk makes a good appetite suppressant!
it also makes sense that breastmilk has a higher protein content
zig’s rebuttal aside, the excerpt Ennis quoted made clear that it has a LOWER protein content than cow’s milk
I guess it doesn’t gross me out if she were planning to eat this herself — but hopefully there was no intention to serve it up to the rest of the family, or, Durga Forbid, to guests!
Way too much information…
So let’s say that you could successfully make human milk cheese; would the consumption thereof be cannibalism?
This raises a bigger (if more inappropriate) question: Would swallowing during a blowjob even be cannibalism?
Hai ram.
Runa, check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentophagy
I’ve also heard of cultures where the placenta is buried in the ground. As a child, I remember seeing a “Placenta Shampoo” at an aunt’s house. I don’t know if it was supposed to be human or animal, but I’ve never forgotten it, and it seemed gross. I also later found out that the idea of putting any kind of protein on the outside of the hair or skin makes absolutely no difference since it’s dead tissue (so all those creams touting being “protein laden” are just another marketing crock of s—).
very interesting!
Kusala, Thanks. This grosses me out more than breast milk paneer.
no. because then those of us who call ourselves vegetarians and drink ma gaiya’s milk, would be considered non-vegetarians.
Ennis, I totally threw up a little. It’s times like this I am glad I’m allergic to dairy, because I don’t think I could eat anything milk-based for a while after reading this, anyhow.
Definitely true. I have a friend whose mother used the placenta to make soup (and removed it) after she was born. I have no idea what the logic was, but something about it being healing/restorative, etc. Frankly I think it’s disgusting — the placenta is basically a huge waste sac, is it not?
I don’t think it’s a “waste sac” of any kind… I think it’s more a spongy, vascularized tissue (one with a lot of blood vessels) for transmitting extra nourishment for the baby. I guess it also produces hormones, so it’s kind of like a temporary endocrine gland as well.
I don’t recommend looking at the photos of placenta on wikipedia. The idea of making that into a soup is disgusting. Maybe dried up and ground into some kind of chinese medicine capsule…. but as soup.
This is a vomitous way to wind up a Friday!
But isn’t the placenta where a fetus’ “waste” goes, as well?
I think for the soup they just boiled it in water — kind of like how you would make chicken stock/broth. I don’t think they actually mashed up the placenta itself, but I do think she ate a bit of it. EW.
there goes my appetite for cheese for a few hours. unless i can get someone to be outgrossed, then it will be all ok.
Don’t forget this!
Why?
What about gnawing on placentas?
I love dairy products with a passion, but must admit I’d hesitate to try human cheese. One of the links you provided, Ennis, mentioned the fact that it would probably taste bad because of the kinds of diets we have. That being said, I’m skeptical that you can’t make cheese out of human milk period…it probably has a different curdling pH than cows milk but if the right agent was used, I don’t see why not…unless maybe it’s not rich enough. Anyway, enough of that… what I really do wish though, is that buffalo milk was available here in America. That’s the taste of India. To me, it makes cows milk seem like dishwater in comparison…buffalo milk is so rich and tasty. There’s an organic healthfood-type place near where I work, they sell buffalo milk yogurt, and it’s really good, but I just want the straight-up milk (whole, none of this skim or 2% nonsense). Goat milk is available, apparently it’s easily digested, but it’s also kinda disgusting, it’s got some kind of wierd flavor to it.
Desert Arabs (bedouins) traditionally survived on a staple diet of dates and camels milk, often with nothing else, for weeks at a time. For me personally, I’m so grateful we come from a milk-consuming culture…although I love Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine, etc., their complete lack of milk products (I know, they’re lactose intolerant) is hard for me to relate to.
Very interesting!! And I can’t stop laughing now..
This is a great movie on the topic being discussed…Three Extremes.
Oh man, I was a hospital volunteer in the stockroom of the maternity ward at a hospital for 4 years in HS — we were in charge in setting up and cleaning up rooms on the floor. As part of the job, we had to bring back the placenta (which was placed in a cardboard bucket, very much like KFC chicken bucket) and store it in the freezer. Every week a representative from “The Placenta People” (not sure if this was their official name, but it was what everyone called them) would come by to take the placentas for distribution to manufacturers of shampoos using keratin derived from these placentas. One of the most disgusting things I’ve experienced in my life and probably one of the first in the series of events to turn me off to a career in clinical medicine.
This is disgusting human cheese.
Y’all gotta stop hating on the human body and start celebrating it instead. Know what I mean?
Slightly OT but does anybody remember the scene in The Last Emperor, where the Emperor is being breastfed at about age 10 or so? South Asians, too, have been known to delay the weaning of boy children. Village boys used to run in during a cricket match to grab a drink from the breast. No such luxury for girl babies, who were often weaned early so that older brother could keep getting his fix. Has SM posted about extended breastfeeding already?
Yep, that was in the NC17 rated director’s cut of Lagaan.
Huneer (TM) is a registered trademark of Rani, Inc.
32,
I don’t know about the difference between girls and boys on breast-feeding, but my father who grew up in a village in Tamil Nadu as an only child had breast milk until he was 5.
Also, it was common custom for mother’s to breast-feed someone else’s babies if their mother could not produce milk.
Grossness (like beauty) is in the eye or in this case the tastebuds of the beholder or taster, afterall most people had breast milk as babies, so why feel queasy about breast milk cheesy?
Rahul: I’m rolling on the floor about the Lagaan comment, but I think the intern should ban you for the human cheese link!!! My eyes are now bleeding!
I think it’s common in “primitive” (no flame war, please), aka: preindustrial/hunter-gatherer type, cultures to nurse children until 4 or 5 years. Part of the “plus” of this is the birth control effect it has (ovulation is often hindered due for hormonal reasons… obviously not 100%).
I think it’s becoming somewhat fashionable in certain Western circles to nurse longer as well — a friend of mine has a joke about an old grad school colleague whose crass husband taught the child (I am totally not lying) to say “Gimme some titty”… my friend now says that you know nursing has gone on wayyyyy too long if the child can utter that phrase.
I was breastfed…but would never want to try human breast milk cheese! Somethings are just gross! Reminds me…there was a case a few years back where a baby at a day care center had no breast milk (mom forgot to bring it in maybe) and could not be fed any other kind of milk. Her daycare teacher was lactating so she fed the baby. When the mother found out, she was up in arms! She tried to sue the woman.
This talk of surrogate nursing is bringing back memories of Cotton Mary with Madhur Jaffrey. Just when I thought I had erased all thoughts of her incessant whining and screeching from my mind.
rahul, unlike kusala, i very much appreciated your human cheese sampler. who doesn’t love the hoff?
Something for everybody is how I roll. ak, if you liked that, you will LOVE this.
urp oh man, I don’t think I’ll be able to eat paneer ever again…o_O thanks a bunch, Ennis…
Rahul, you are too much. Not only was that link traumatizing, it also induces seizures a la Pokeman 😉
I generally think it’s a little sick to continue drinking breast milk after childhood. Isn’t that a little strange? Now I’m going to look at dairy and think “breast milk” for the next 5 days.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Borat yet. I couldn’t eat REAL cheese for the longest time after that.
When I have spare pumped breastmilk our dog drinks it so no wastage there. I have followed the fashion in some western circles of extended breastfeeding I am tandam feeding my 4yrold 1 yr old and 3 month old. I can’t bring myself to take a sip of my own milk though. Something offputting about drinking ones own body fluids and recycling my nutrients.
rahul, i did LOVE it. however, my vertigo just could not take more than 5 seconds of looking at it. maybe there is such a thing as too much of the hoff.
Why didn’t she make malai kofta? It seems appropriate to have round orbs with breast milk in them.
OT, have you seen the Will Ferrell landlord skit?
The world of the Knight Rider is lonely and dangerous. So is the beach.
Oh…THAT’s how one makes malai koftas. I always wondered. Rahul, as always you came through with flying colors. Bade chalo. Is there a Rahul-fan-club? I am a silent heaving-type of admirer of your writing P.S And have watched Will Ferrel’s landlord skit. It’s hysterical.
My granny is a gold mine of obscure and often the most illogical superstitions. She once saved one of her grandkid’s placenta and then dried it in the sun. She had the thing ground into a fine powder and had one of my aunts (who hadn’t conceived in gasp….two years of marriage!) put it in her coffee and drink it. Apparently, it was supposed to make her fertile or some crap like that. Of course, said aunt conveniently forgot to talk about the pill she dutiflly swallowed before her morning coffee.
True Story. 🙂
More variety of human cheese…