Saturday, October 3, 2009

Chevre Pancakes

In the last few years, dairy farmers in Germany have been complaining about the low price of milk. When milk costs €0.29 / L, it is very hard to make a profit, or even make ends meet (note: discount bottled water costs €0.35). A consumer who is aware of this problem can respond in a variety of ways. You can ignore the problem & continue to hope that your daily staple will not cost you more. You can choose to pay more for milk and milk products but the question remains: how much of that money really goes to the farmer & how much is absorbed by the milk company. You can buy local milk and ensure the farmers in your area see the money that you are willing to pay. I have gone a different route - I have stopped buying milk and milk products. I'm not sure that this is the answer, certainly it isn't for many German households, but I switched to goat milk for a few reasons.

Goat and sheep milk can normally be consumed by people who are lactose intolerant. Goat and sheep milk are not as commercial as cow milk, and I believe are thus less prone to the industrialized farming that results in high hormone and antibiotic use in cows. I could be wrong here, but because goats produce a fraction of the milk that cows do, they can not be used on such a large scale, and therefore, should not be as prone to disease as animals that are living in cramped quarters. For me, the most important reason to switch to goat milk was quite simply, the workaholic likes it better. I found some goat milk in the supermarket, imported from France, and had some goat yogurt in the fridge. Together, they are the perfect consistency for buttermilk - all without the bad conscience.

Goatmilk Pancakes
1 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
125 g goat yogurt
goat milk (about a 1/2 c)
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda & baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
Place yogurt in a measuring cup. Add enough milk so you have 3/4 c liquid. Mix the thick mass until it is free of lumps.
In a small bowl, add the egg, oil and goat milk. Stir until smooth.
Slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the flour mixture. Stir a few times, the batter should still be lumpy.
Cook pancakes on a grill at medium heat until bubbles form. Then flip the pancakes. Keep them warm in a cool oven (50°), covered in foil until all pancakes are done. Serve with warm maple syrup.

I'm not sure if I'm really doing my part to help the farmers. Maybe it's time for government support, like in France. All I really know is that the pancakes were really sweet and went well with bacon. But what doesn't go well with bacon?

10 comments:

Amanda said...

Very interesting. Do you actually drink the goat's milk like you would cow's milk? I love goat cheese, but I've never tried the milk or yogurt.

Jhonny walker said...

Hey,
I am lactose intolerant and I didn't know about the goatmilk fact.Thanks for sharing the information :)

taste traveller said...

Amanda, I only really have milk on my cereal, but yes, a thin yogurt or the milk is fine. I'd even try it in coffee, if I drank coffee anymore.

Jhonny: I hope it helps! No guarantees though - I'm not a doctor! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Love the new look on the blog! And yummy pancakes. I'm always on the alert for new variations on one of my favorite foods~

Cathy said...

Yum!!

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

my first time see a goat milk pancake, look very interesting.

Murasaki Shikibu said...

I was drinking sheep's milk for awhile there because of it's high calcium content. It was just easier to get my 1g calcium per day with that versus cow's milk. Sheeps milk imho tastes pretty disgusting though. Maybe goat's milk tastes exponentially better. :)

taste traveller said...

WBohemian: Thanks! It was pretty much my straight buttermilk pancake recipe, minus the controversy.

Cathy: :-)

Sonia: it didn't taste very different.

Murasaki: I think it might depend on the brand & when I visited the goat farm here in Heidelberg, they said it depends on how long the milk waits before it gets processed. There, it only waits a few minutes so it doesn't develop a bad taste. I bought some kind of low fat milk that is super-high heated - the kind of milk that is good for months - it tasted just like cow milk.

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

Goat yogurt! This is very interesting. My daughter drank only goat's milk for years when she was growing up, no thanks to her nasty eczema problem. But the benefits were obvious - goat's milk did not cause any flare-ups to her skin. It cost me an arm and a leg to feed her, though! About triple what cow's milk would have cost me. Anyway, I digress ... I must compliment you on those fluffy pancakes! Worth waking up for :)

taste traveller said...

Little Teochew: That's exactly why the workaholic gave up cow milk! He said his skin was terrible & then, no cow milk, no flare ups! I know - it's so much more expensive, but I like to go out to the farm to buy goat products & I see it as my entertainment budget. They let me go back & pet the goats! :-)

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