European Dairy

So I went to Europe for the first time recently (specifically I went to the Balkans) and I was surprised by how good the dairy products were there. Almost everything I tried was better than the North American counterpart, except for the yogurt which was pretty much on par. I hate milk here because it always tastes sour even the day I buy it, but I could drink the stuff I had there all day long. I was especially surprised by the cottage cheese, which was about 2 orders of magnitude better than North American stuff. Anyone have any insight as to why dairy in Europe is so much better than in North America? Is it the feed? The freshness? Is more of it locally produced?

Also, do European markets in North America typically carry dairy imports? Does it cost way more?

Dairy products are basically milk at varying bacteria/fat levels.
They're just different products most of the time, partly due to tradition and partly due to hygiene laws that I suppose are strict in US.

Where can I get that cottage cheese? Right now I get 2% large curd

I fucking wish I knew, this is the shit I had and it was fucking delicious. A specialty European market or something maybe. After doing some online research I found out that you might be able to find it but here it's called farmers cheese. It might also be labeled quark, twaog, or tvorog apparently.

Yeah, just about everything that comes from an animal is going to be better outside the US.

If you want, you can easily make cottage cheese at home. Try looking up a recipe for paneer, except instead of turning it into a block of cheese just leave the curds as is after draining.

American food is made for mass production, European food is made for taste

From Amerifat
/thread

Thanks that's what I want. Even the 2% I find to be too creamy.

I can't answer that question but I grew up in Serbia and the milk there is fuckin delicious...Canadian milk can't even compete

It's not homegenized.

The quality of the milk depends on what the cows are eating, which depends on regional standards and land and stuff. For example, in the US milk tastes better in the late spring early summer when cows start eating green forage again. But this is in addition to the cow feed that is ubiquitous in USA farms. Also USA has more centralized distribution and mass production/processing than smaller euro countries.

And probably less focus on quality /taste and more on SAFETY. USA also has a weak food tradition.

it's not continental
big cities are hard to feed with fresh produce everywhere
rural parts sure have their tasty dairy

Good cheese is hard to make, user. It takes generations to master and develop the proper technique to make good cheese in a specific location.
This is also the reason why there's huge variety: if I wanna make cheese and emulate my neighbouring village, it's not gonna be as good. With time, I will make great cheese, but I will also have departed from the recipe I intended to emulate.

Simply put, UScheese is bad for two reasons: lack of experience and mass production.

>daily obsessed europoor thread

mods please do something about this shitposting

this board desperately needs flags

>this board desperately needs flags

Yes. For example, your post would display a little Australian flag on it so we all knew to ignore everything you say.

Dairy products differ quite a lot between European countries though. I'm swedish and I have always considered our milk to be quite far up there when it comes to taste. That became especially evident when i tried milk in the US. But then i traveled to Estonia and god damn the milk was way better than the swedish kind. One of the weeks of my trip I spent on a dairy farm an hour outside of Tallinn and I had a glass of milk every morning with my breakfast. The milk had been produced and chilled two hours before i woke up and that was by far the best milk I have ever tasted.

Germany on the other hand have pretty shitty milk.

Different breeds of cattle, at least in Eastern Europe. Western Europe & the USA went with Holstein's across the board while the Soviets stuck with more traditional and varied breeds that were more suited to their environment.

Also different farming practices (rBST is banned, for example) and a firmly entrenched culture around dairy farming & cheese production.

No hormones and probably better animal welfare. It makes a huge difference if the cows are fed grass and are not kept in confined spaces. This not only for dairy products, but also meat.

that's surprising, back when i was in NYC, the yoghurt at the hotel was god awful, had crazy amounts of sugar. so much so that i couldn't even eat one of those small packages

I went to Dubai and had some stale cereal and UHT milk at my hotel buffet, clearly stale cereal and UHT milk is a traditional breakfast food of the UAE

What do you mean you were surprised?

Cheese is pretty much Europe's thing
like 75% of types of cheese were first created somewhere in Europe probably

a lot of non European cuisines barely even use cheese at all

>traditional foods of a place that's only existed for a few decades, constructed entirely by modern technology and artificial means

So, McGurgles's and Starcucks?

wait, so i can't be surprised when i've had the opposite experience?
thanks dude, thanks for letting me know how i am allowed to react!

Maybe growth hormones and antibiotics affect flavour, US milk is banned in EU because of the crap you pump into your cows.

I have always wanted to try my hand at cheese making, why is it so complex ?

The opposite of what? Going to a hotel? I guess that would be getting fired as the live-in apartment superintendent?