Iron Chef Champion Sells Cheese Made From His Wife's Breast Milk

            This Chelsea restaurant has gone from brasserie to brassiere.

            Chef Daniel Angerer of Klee Brasserie is now serving cheese made from his wife’s breast milk.

            “It tastes like cow’s-milk cheese,” Angerer told the Post, “kind of sweet.”

            Angerer said the flavor of the cheese really depends on what it is served with but recommends ordering a Riesling along side.  

            Since a lack of protein stops the breast milk from curdling, a little milk as to be added to the cheese to balance out the texture.

            Angerer, who once beat Bobby Flay on Foodnetwork’s “Iron Chef,” began blogging about his experimenting with making cheese out of human breast milk a few months back, and customers demanded a taste.

            “The phone was ringing off the hook,” Angerer told the Post.  “So I prepared a little canapé of breast-milk cheeses with figs and Hungarian Pepper”

            Overall many of Angerer’s customers were satisfied, despite some reluctance over tasting the cheese.

            "I think a lot of the criticism has to do with the combination of sex and cheese, but the breast is there to make food," said Lori Mason, the chef's wife.

            Since the restaurant began selling this new cheese, Mason has constantly received “creep queries” she said.

            Some people who clearly have issues have . . . e-mailed me saying, 'I wasn't breast-fed as a child, so can I taste your breast milk?' " she said.

            Mason continued to tell the Post that she declines the offers because she isn’t here to “walk people through their psychological problems.”

            However new creations seem to be in the near future as Mason prods her husband to start making human breast milk gelato as well.

             Is this even legal?  Though there are no department codes that explicitly ban the use of human breast milk in the food industry, the department of heath has told Angerer that he should refrain from sharing his wife’s breast milk with the world.

            “The restaurant knows that cheese made from breast milk is not for public consumption, whether sold or given away,” the city Department of Health said.

Chef Daniel Angerer's Blog

Recipe:

Step-by Step 
My Spouse’s Mommy Milk Cheese Making Experiment


(basic recipe using 8 cups of any milk - yields about ½ pound cheese)

2 cups milk (just about any animal milk will work)
1½-teaspoon yogurt (must be active cultured yogurt)
1/8-tablet rennet (buy from supermarket, usually located in pudding section)
1 teaspoon sea salt such as Baline
 
1. Inoculate milks by heating (68 degree Fahrenheit) then introduce starter bacteria (active yogurt) then let stand for 6 – 8 hours at room temperature, 68ºF covered with a lid. Bacteria will grow in this way and convert milk sugar (lactose) to lactic acid. You can detect its presence by the tart/sour taste. 
2. After inoculating the milk heat to 86 degrees Fahrenheit then add rennet (I use tablets which I dissolve in water) and stir throughout. Cover pot and don’t disturb for an hour until “clean break stage” is achieved, meaning with a clean spoon lift a small piece of curd out of the milk - if it is still soft and gel-like let pot stand for an hour longer. If curds “break clean” cut with a knife into a squares (cut inside the pot a ½-inch cube pattern).  
3. Raise temperature slowly continuously stirring with a pastry spatula (this will prevent clumping of cut curd). This is what I call the “ricotta stage” if you like this kind of fresh cheese – here it is. For cheese with a little bit more of texture heat curds to 92 degree Fahrenheit - for soft curd cheese, or as high 102oF for very firm cheese. The heating of the curd makes all the difference in the consistency of the cheese. When heated the curd looks almost like scrambled eggs at this point (curd should be at bottom of pot in whey liquid). 
4. Pour curd through a fine strainer (this will separate curd from whey) then transfer into a bowl and add salt and mix with a pastry spatula (this will prevent curd from spoiling). Whey can be drank - it is quite healthy and its protein is very efficiently absorbed into the blood stream making it a sought-after product in shakes for bodybuilders. 
5. Give curd shape by lining a container with cheese cloth (allow any excess of cheese cloth to hang over edges of container). Transfer drained, warm curd in the cheese cloth lined container (I used a large plastic quart containers like a large Chinese take- out soup container and cut 4 holes in the bottom with the tip of my knife). Fold excess cheese cloth over top of cheese then weight curd down (with second container filled with water or such) then store in refrigerator (14 hours or so – put container into a second larger container – this will catch draining whey liquid).
6. Take pressed curd out of container (flip container upside-down then unwrap carefully not to damage structure of pressed curd). Rewrap pressed curd with new cheese cloth then age in refrigerator for several weeks (cheese will form a light brown skin around week two – this is normal). Age cheese longer for a more pronounced/sharper cheese flavor.

2 cups mother’s milk