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News & ArtsThursday, March 11, 2010
Chow Breast Milk Cheese: It's What's for Dinner!
Posted by Kelly O on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 5:14 PM
... at least it was once for dinner at Chef Daniel Angerer's NYC restaurant Klee Brasserie.
After blogging about his efforts with the human cheese, customers started demanding a sample, he said. "The phone was ringing off the hook, so I prepared a little canapé of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper."
I don't think I could eat it. All because I once watched THIS.
2
I'm pretty sure the slog has already trolled this exact breast milk story at least twice. EEEEEE! Breast milk, run for your lives! Cooties!
Got anything on pitbulls?
Got anything on pitbulls?
4
Hey! Don't you guys ever read your own blog? I Slogged about breast milk cheese just three short years ago, at the first Freaky Friday (hey, when are you doing another one of those, anyways?): http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/06/brea…
6
I just got back from NYC and I was there during the hype so I decided to try it. Honestly it was not bad. The wait was worse, it kinda had a nutty taste. I have swallowed cum that tasted worse.
7
I would eat it, but only if I could see a picture of the person, or people it came from. I’d imagine that a single block would take a cheese team to produce enough milk.
9
re: the small font YouTube link, when your child can be interviewed on their feelings on breastfeeding, it's definitely gone too far.
10
re: the link..... WEIRD. I'd love to breastfeed longer than a year. But playing instruments, making drawings... and EATING LUNCH AT YOUR BOOB is just strange.
Sorry. Went all Lindy for a second.
Sorry. Went all Lindy for a second.
11
I saw a post-partum woman leaning over the barista at Starbucks this morning...Baby Lattes on the way?
I saw a post-partum woman leaning over the barista at Starbucks this morning...Baby Lattes on the way?
13
cooties sounds about right. breast milk can harbor all sorts of bloodborne pathogens. i'm sure chef's wife has a clean bill of health, but this is still a really terrible idea. remember kids, it's never a good idea to take bodily fluids from strangers.
14
it is pretty funny that we think cheese made out of cow's milk is more natural than cheese made out of human milk.
More work for wet nurses! How's that for a stimulus package!
More work for wet nurses! How's that for a stimulus package!
15
Why is everyone so freaking freaked out about breast milk? I know it's odd to be breastfeeding a kid at 7, but is it really hurting anyone? Is it any worse than the people who have to homeschool their kids to keep them away from the bad influences in public school? Are they coddling their kids any more? Or are you all freaking out because you can't separate the sexual function of a breast from it's intended function? Stop. It's a breast. Every woman has two. They are there to feed children. Get over it.
17
But is it really hurting anyone?
Probably not, but let's get back to that kid at 14, 21, 28, etc. and find out.
I am honestly curious.
Probably not, but let's get back to that kid at 14, 21, 28, etc. and find out.
I am honestly curious.
18
I think it's the same social taboo at work that prevents most people, except under conditions of the most supreme duress, from eating human flesh.
Cheese is CHEESE, people. Whether it comes from cow's milk, goat's milk, mother's milk, it's still basically the same thing. Same as meat. Beef, chicken, mutton, veal, lamb, or long pig, in the end there's no appreciable difference.
Not that I'm advocating cannibalism, mind you. But, if I'd survived a plane wreck in the Andes (or Rockies for that matter), and that's all there was between me and starvation, well, you do what you gotta do to survive, know what I mean?
Cheese is CHEESE, people. Whether it comes from cow's milk, goat's milk, mother's milk, it's still basically the same thing. Same as meat. Beef, chicken, mutton, veal, lamb, or long pig, in the end there's no appreciable difference.
Not that I'm advocating cannibalism, mind you. But, if I'd survived a plane wreck in the Andes (or Rockies for that matter), and that's all there was between me and starvation, well, you do what you gotta do to survive, know what I mean?
19
What @9 said. That kid was like 15 years old.
I imagine I'll try it when the girlfriend and I have a kid, unless we adopt. But that shit would have to taste like bacon flavored beer and come with a handjob for me to try it more than once.
I imagine I'll try it when the girlfriend and I have a kid, unless we adopt. But that shit would have to taste like bacon flavored beer and come with a handjob for me to try it more than once.
21
There are many countries where kids self-wean, and this typically takes place at the age of 2-3. Kids breastfeeding at age 4-5 isn't uncommon.
Comparing humans with non-human primates, there are a number of factors you can look at, including weight compared to birth weight, weight compared to adult weight, whether or not any adult teeth have come in, and immune system maturity.
Long story short, depending on which metric you compare with primates, the natural age of weaning in humans is somewhere between 2-1/2 and 7 years of age.
Comparing humans with non-human primates, there are a number of factors you can look at, including weight compared to birth weight, weight compared to adult weight, whether or not any adult teeth have come in, and immune system maturity.
Long story short, depending on which metric you compare with primates, the natural age of weaning in humans is somewhere between 2-1/2 and 7 years of age.
22
@12,13 - There is this thing called pasteurization. And, the curdling process used to make cheese does a good job of killing pathogens too.
23
One study of HIV+ mothers in South Africa found that breasdtfeeding for 18 months increased the rate of infection of the infant by 12%. Another study in Africa found it increased the rate of infection by 15%.
In poor countries, this risk is balanced against the risk of the baby dying from contaminated water if infant formula is used. If the mother drinks slightly tainted water, her body can clean it and provide relatively safer milk, while if formula is mixed with unclean water, it can kill the baby. This is related to the opposition to pushing formula feeding in third world countries, and the famous boycott of Nestle in the late 70s.
It's a difficult choice between the two options for HIV+ moms in poor countries. But anyway, it demonstrates that while pathogen transmission in breast milk is possible, it is nothing like the risk of sharing needles or unprotected sex -- mostly the milk is free from viruses and other contaminants, but over a long time the risk adds up. And breast milk generally has pathogens and contaminants in the environment removed, not passed on to the baby.
Not that I would want cheese of any kind that wasn't pasteurized.
You can google all of this of course. It's well known.
In poor countries, this risk is balanced against the risk of the baby dying from contaminated water if infant formula is used. If the mother drinks slightly tainted water, her body can clean it and provide relatively safer milk, while if formula is mixed with unclean water, it can kill the baby. This is related to the opposition to pushing formula feeding in third world countries, and the famous boycott of Nestle in the late 70s.
It's a difficult choice between the two options for HIV+ moms in poor countries. But anyway, it demonstrates that while pathogen transmission in breast milk is possible, it is nothing like the risk of sharing needles or unprotected sex -- mostly the milk is free from viruses and other contaminants, but over a long time the risk adds up. And breast milk generally has pathogens and contaminants in the environment removed, not passed on to the baby.
Not that I would want cheese of any kind that wasn't pasteurized.
You can google all of this of course. It's well known.
24
HIV isn't the only bloodborne pathogen that can be transmitted through breastmilk. while HIV is highly unstable, other viruses are not and require extreme heat to destroy them, which would also ruin the consistency of the milk. the pasteurization process is designed to kill microorganisms present in animal milk that can infect humans (mostly bacteria), and does not reach sufficient temperatures to kill some human bloodborne pathogens (mostly viruses).
we don't not-eat bodily fluids from humans just because we think it's gross. it's also highly unsanitary. you can google that, too.
we don't not-eat bodily fluids from humans just because we think it's gross. it's also highly unsanitary. you can google that, too.
25
I think you're missing the point.
If you are in an environment where pathogens or contaminates exist, and you simply don't have access to clean water, or can't move away from the contamination, then breastfeeding will reduce the exposure to infants. For example, if there is lead in the water the mother drinks, then there will be lead in breastmilk, but it will be less lead than you would have if the baby consumed formula made with the same water. Same with cholera bacteria or whatever.
That's all I'm saying. If you eat asparagus, your pee might smell bad, but breastmilk is not pee. The mechanism is different -- obviously infants are more vulnerable to toxins and germs than adults, and so it makes sense that we would evolve a mechanism to filter them out during the most vulnerable stages of development.
But if somebody offers you breastmilk cheese (not likely, but if they do... ) please feel free to decline. I don't care one way or the other whether or not anybody wants to eat hypothetical breastmilk cheese.
If you are in an environment where pathogens or contaminates exist, and you simply don't have access to clean water, or can't move away from the contamination, then breastfeeding will reduce the exposure to infants. For example, if there is lead in the water the mother drinks, then there will be lead in breastmilk, but it will be less lead than you would have if the baby consumed formula made with the same water. Same with cholera bacteria or whatever.
That's all I'm saying. If you eat asparagus, your pee might smell bad, but breastmilk is not pee. The mechanism is different -- obviously infants are more vulnerable to toxins and germs than adults, and so it makes sense that we would evolve a mechanism to filter them out during the most vulnerable stages of development.
But if somebody offers you breastmilk cheese (not likely, but if they do... ) please feel free to decline. I don't care one way or the other whether or not anybody wants to eat hypothetical breastmilk cheese.
26
true, but microorganisms evolve much more rapidly than humans, therefore they can adapt to evade our mechanisms for minimizing trasmission more readily than we can adapt to prevent transmission from occuring (HIV, for example, integrates into the genome of the immune cells it infects, which are transferred from mother to child during breastfeeding). hence, despite our bodies' best efforts, we still have maternal-to-child transmission of bugs like HIV and hepatitis via breastfeeding, and probably some other things we don't even know about yet.
i don't care if people want to consume human breast milk, paricularly when they know the woman it's coming from. but 'minimal risk' is not the same as 'no risk.' a minimal risk can become a huge public health problem if the practice is widespread. you can't catch hep-b from cow's milk, but the possibility exists from human milk if the source is infected. this is my one and only point -- not that breast milk is ewwwickygross, but that its consumption comes with a certain, albeit nominal, level of risk. make of it what you will.
i don't care if people want to consume human breast milk, paricularly when they know the woman it's coming from. but 'minimal risk' is not the same as 'no risk.' a minimal risk can become a huge public health problem if the practice is widespread. you can't catch hep-b from cow's milk, but the possibility exists from human milk if the source is infected. this is my one and only point -- not that breast milk is ewwwickygross, but that its consumption comes with a certain, albeit nominal, level of risk. make of it what you will.
27
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