36
Friday, June 6, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Special to The Jewish News
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Somerset Mall, Troy
Shavuot Dairy Delights
ORCHARD MALL
WEST BLOOMFIELD
(ONE BLOCK SOUTH OF 13 MILE ROAD)
1/ 2
COOKING
643-0450
Shavuot begins on the sixth
day of the Hebrew month of
Sivan (corresponding, this year,
to June 13). Thursday evening
would be the perfect time for a
delectable dairy meal corn-
memorating this holiday, which
traditionally celebrates the Re-
velation and the giving of the
Torah to the Jewish people at
Mount Sinai.
Throughout history, many
symbolic explanations for our
partaking of dairy foods on this
holiday have been suggested.
For instance, Israel is described
in the Torah as a land of milk
and honey. (For this reason,
some cooks add honey to their
holiday dairy dishes.) Or, some
say, the Jewish people learned
of kashrut only after they had
received the Torah, and they did
not have time to kasher meat
and cooking equipment for their
first meal; so they ate uncooked
cheese instead.
Others point out that the He-
brew word for milk, chalav, has
a numerical equivalent of 40 —
the number of days Moses
waited on Mount Sinai for the
Torah. Furthermore, as a child,
he would take milk only from a
Hebrew wet nurse.
A favorite dairy food for
Shavuot is cottage cheese; which
is quite appropriate considering
it is probably one of the oldest
forms of cheese. Ancient
herdspeople most likely dis-
covered it when they left some
milk out in the warm sun. The
milk soured and its solids, called
"curds," separated from the liq-
uid part called "whey." Curds,
the tender lumps in cottage
cheese, actually form the basis
for all cheeses, whether they be
fresh like cottage cheese or aged
like cheddar, Swiss and muens-
ter.
For centuries, dairy farmers
made the simple fresh cheese in
their cottages (hence, the name)
using practically the same
method as the cheese's early
discoverers. The farmers would
place skim milk (the top cream
was skimmed off and reserved
for butter-making) into large
pans near the fire or on the
back of the stove. The heat
would activate natural bacteria
that turned the milk sugar, lac-
tose, into lactic acid. This acid
would consequently coagulate
the curd.
The modern production of cot-
tage cheese uses the same basic
principles, but with certain im-
provements so that commercial
cottage cheese is uniform in
taste, texture and keeping qual-
ities. The process still begins
with skim milk, but today the
milk is pasteurized first. Some-
times reconstituted nonfat dry
milk is added to the skim milk.
It takes almost seven pounds of
liquid milk to make just one
pound of cottage cheese.
Following are several recipes
perfect for Shavuot.
BASIC COTTAGE
CHEESECAKE
Crust:
PA cups graham cracker
crumbs
3 tbsps. sugar
1 /4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 /4 cup butter or margarine,
melted
Filling:
4 cups (2 16-ounce containers)
creamed cottage cheese
4 large eggs
3 /4 cup sugar
1 /4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. butter or margarine,
melted and slightly
cooled
•
For the crust, mix the crumbs,
sugar and cinnamon in a
medium-sized bowl. Remove 2
tablespoons of the crumbs, and
set aside for a topping. Into the
remaining crumbs, stir the
melted butter until the crumbs
are moistened. Press them into
the bottom of a 9-inch
springform pan or an 8-inch
square pan. Bake the crust in a
preheated 325 degree oven for 8
minutes. Remove the pan from
the oven and cool the crust
slightly.
For the filling, combine all
the ingredients except the
melted butter in the bowl of a
food processor (fitted with the
steel blade). Process until well
mixed. Add the butter and proc-
ess until smooth and creamy. (If
a processor is not available,
press the cottage cheese through
a sieve; then use an electric
mixer to beat it with the re-
maining ingredients until
smooth and creamy.)
Pour the filling over the pre-