Dairy Appliances

Most of us purchase dairy products from the supermarket. But if you live near or on a dairy farm, these tools come in really handy. Fresh milk needs to be pasteurized before it can be drunk and if you have a little more, you can make yogurt, cheese and even butter.

Yogurt Makers S$80 are really popular with alpha moms. You also need yogurt starters or some sort of cultures to get started. So you mix heated milk with these packets of powdery yogurt starters and leave it in jars inside a yogurt maker overnight. Wake up the next morning to firm curd that you can mix with fruit, honey, granola or blend into milkshakes. 

Cusipro cream cheese maker S$20 is essentially a strainer but you will appreciate the convenience once you start. Leave regular yogurt in the strainer for a day in the fridge to make creamy cheese. Spreadable on toast and easily mixed into cheesecake filling.

If you like, you can make your own cheese from milk, preferably unpasteurized. You can buy cheese making kits online but it's essentially citric acid, thermometer and cheese cloth. Takes several hours and some arm work with the wringing but you get fresh homemade cheese.

I learned how to make butter from Barney the purple dinosaur, you put milk in a jar and shake it. Similar kits are sold online but I think that takes several hours before milk is churned into butter. Farms use large butter churners and smaller versions (like below) are sold to domestic artisans who want to make their own butter, available in either manual crank or electrical.

Cream is derived from milk and farms usually put fresh milk direct from the cows/goats into large vats to let the cream settle before separating it off. To speed up the separation process, you can purchase milk cream separators either manual or electrical.

Ice Cream Makers use cream that I covered in an earlier post, and so do soft serve machines. Soo many options for cold treats these days.