Her knows I like cottage cheese and brought it home as a gift. We both like visiting foods from our past. This cottage cheese is indeed curds and whey. "Whey" being the broth from the curing curds.
I opened the container and started saying the nursery rhyme shown at the top of the page.
I had to give a few moments thought to bring forth the entire rhyme with her helping.
The photo does not accurately show the whey being the color of butter. Very rich. A spoonful taste did not bring with it my decades of eating processed cottage cheese.
My first reaction was, "not so much." Her told me to let the bite set in my mouth a moment. "Taste the butter." I did.
I realized I was being treated to a food common to my weekends spent on the ranch. A family dairy farm. Over six decades ago.
These curds and whey have a very different taste and texture from the processed cottage cheese found in markets. Day and night.
The whey is thinner and curds are a texture like feta cheese. Not as crumbly though. Close to the chewing of small cheese pieces. Combine the buttery flavor of the whey with all of that.
We tasted several times giving this all its due. It is different. Not displeasing. But different. Flavor and texture. A good different. This find from our past will replace many years of eating processed cottage from grocery store shelves.
Cottage cheese and peaches. A marriage of flavor for me for many years. I added some peach juice to a helping of these curds and whey. A half slice peach on top. Bingo!!
We have found a second dairy farm to shop at now. An hour away. Call ahead ordering required.
OK! from my external hard drive. I knew I had this somewhere.
KLATSCOS (Pierogi) From the old country; Central/Eastern European influence
Grandfather immigrated from Russia and grandmother from Lithuania.
This is my grandmother Rose's dish. We had this often during weekend visits to the ranch in Raymond. All the ingredients were raised/made on the farm. I learned to eat these and then eventually learned to love them. I think it was the noodle and butter parts that appealed to my taste buds. The very best way to eat these is the next day. Cut each Klatscos into 3/8” wide strips and lightly brown in butter.
3 sm eggs
½ to ¾ cups of milk
3 ½ cups of flour approximate to make a rubber-like dough. Salt to taste
This makes a large batch of dough.
Use low calorie cottage cheese curds and squeeze dry or use any cc curds available. Set dry cc curds aside. Curds must be dry!!! (curds and whey were used on the dairy farm and always mandated by grandma and mom)
Add 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yoke., a little salt and mix well.
Pinch off chunks of dough and flatten evenly in the palm of your hand.
Add a spoon full of cc to the middle of the dough.
Fold dough over cc and pinch edges together to seal in the mixture. I remember laying down the filled dough and finishing the pinching with the front tongs of a fork. It is most important for the cc to be completely sealed inside the dough.
Makes about 15-16 Klatscos.
Place completed Klatscos into boiling water for 15 -20 minutes. Add a little salt to the water for flavor. Serve with sour cream.
Klatscos can also be spaced in a baking dish and put in the oven covered with a little butter over it. Lightly grease or butter the bottom of the pan first.
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My grandmother could barely read and always wrote phonetically. Some of her old documents have to be said out loud to try to know the content of records she was keeping.
I cannot find the word Klatscos on the net.
I have memories of this dish early on and always the hearing name in conjunction of the making/serving of the dish. My grandmother, my mother and her sister sharing part of the kitchen, making these round noodles filled with curds.
The spelling is directly from my mothers hand writing. BUT, my guess is that it is a close written representation of grandma's broken English pronunciation.
It is a pierogi, but I sure would like to find history of the name originating in central Europe.
My wife's research found this. The photos are exactly what these look like.
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25% BUTTERFAT
I shared this photo on the last post. Maybe the one earlier.
While visiting with the wife of the dairy farmer this past week, her found out that this 25% butterfat milk product, only made from Jersey cows, best approximates mother's milk in richness, ease of digestion and nutrition.
We learned something new last week.
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SPLASH OF COLOR
Her wanted me to take her and the truck to a nearby nursery early in the week. After lunch, temperature 95 degrees; muggy. She quickly added that they have pepper plants. Showed me a picture. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, she had me at peppers.
A half dozen pampas grass, hanging baskets of pepper plants and huge Black-eyed Susans quickly filled the truck bed.
The above ornamental peppers owned me from the get go. I had them hanging within an hour. They thrive in the hot Texas sun.
Her laughed at me when I told her to look at the carport. Said something to the fact how surprising it is that things you want to do, seem to get done instantly.
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HEAVY, DRENCHED, MESSY, SPITTIN' SEEDS, FLAVOR, LOCAL, MORNING
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