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 ?