Where cheeses/butter/yogurt come from

[mattbell]

A few days ago I was talking with some friends about how people don't really know where their foods come from and how they're made.  I'd especially love to see a giant flowchart around milk products, with cow/goat/sheep milk at the top and all the different cheeses at the bottom.  A friend mentioned seeing one on a billboard in Canada, but I couldn't find any images of it online.  I did find this, which is painful to read but provides the relevant info:



Here's another one that focuses more on the protein vs fat broken out of the milk.

I'd love to have these charts for various different types of food.  (corn and corn products, beef, ice cream/gelato, wheat, rice, soybeans and all that processed vegetarian stuff).  They'd make nice posters. 

Update:  Here's a way better one, via [Bad username or unknown identity: easwaran  .  ]

Comments

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

There's a chart for doughs: http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/04/dough-and-batter-ratios-the-chart.html

Milk products are too complex, though, IMHO. When I want to know about them, I read On Food and Cooking.

[lasofia.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I like the idea of posters.

I've been thinking along similar lines lately. I used to think a lot of people were surprisingly ignorant about a lot of things (like wheat vs whole wheat vs wheat germ vs gluten vs seitan) but then I realized I should turn it around and realize I know a lot of trivia most people have never cared to learn.

Mateo is going to a small home-based school, and his teacher encourages parents to share information. I did a one hour talk about the history of fabric (from skins to bamboo/soy/milk fabrics). Like I said, trivia. But it hurts my brain how many one hour talks I want to do. I want them to know about how the world works.

Further from your post, I want to demystify as much as I kind. For example, I take off the the front panel of the dryer so that the kids (and Dave) can see that our gas dryer isn't a magic box but rather a roasting drum over a fire.

Though there's something to be said for mystifying on purpose, for my own amusement.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

There aren't any fire spirits that live in the dryer? Now you're going to tell me there's no santa claus.

I do like your parenting techniques.

[lasofia.livejournal.com]

Sadly I am cursed with a child who gets mad at me when I tell him things like fire spirits live in the dryer. Or the tooth fairy might go on vacation soon, and when she does the Halloween gnomes sub for her and just leave stale candy, so you'd best lose that tooth ASAP. Or Halloween gnomes in general (they sneak in every night for a week after Halloween and snitch a few pieces of candy. They seem partial to chocolate).

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

You should have checked wikipedia! I ran into this one some time last year when Matt and I were puzzling about some milk term that appeared in Australia but not the US, and we wanted to figure out how it fit in. I was surprised to discover that even "whole milk" is separated and re-mixed to a carefully calibrated fat percentage.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Sweet. I really like that chart.