Got milk?
    If there are cows or goats in your village, you have potential milk sources. Also, powdered and canned milk are locally available in most places. Chock full of protein, minerals, and vitamins, it is a valuable part of a volunteer's diet. What follows are some ideas to safely and creatively enjoy milk.

    Cow's milk is the milk most of us have been drinking since childhood. Goat's milk is also consumable but often overlooked. Most cattle herders know about getting milk from cows, however, many goat owners don't consider their goats as a milk source. Possibly, if an acceptance of goat’s milk can be encouraged, better husbandry and goat  control techniques may follow.
    Milk needs to be pasteurized in order to kill off disease causing microbes. Heat pasteurization is the most practical means to do this in the village. The simple method for heat pasteurization is to simply bring the milk to a boil for about half of a minute. A more involved method consists of heating the milk in a double boiler. The milk should rise to a temperature of about 161 degrees. Keep cooking the milk for 20 second and either drink it hot, or cool it by placing it in a separate pot of cool water.
    There is a resistance to the idea of pasteurizing milk due to a local belief that if the container that used to collect milk touches fire, the cow's udder will explode.      You may be able to talk around this taboo by making sure you use a secondary cooking pot, or by pointing out that in a double boiler, the milk kettle is being heated by contact with water, not by direct contact with fire.
    In addition, it would be a good idea to encourage the straining of milk through a clean cloth, and even the washing of the animal's udder prior to milking.

    Good cheeses can be made from cow, goat, or even powdered milk. However, most cheeses require the addition of rennet or various bacteria cultures that are not readily available in the village. Still, a simple cottage cheese can be made. When draining out the whey from the curd, use a clean peace of cloth. Medical gauze pads are essentially sterilized cheesecloths perfect for straining.
     Let your milk sour by leaving it covered to sit for 24 hours, or by adding some lemon or lime juice, or some vinegar. Let the soured milk cook in a double boiler for about 45 minutes. Let it cool, then separate the curds from the whey, and rinse them. You can flavor the cheese by adding spices during the 45 minutes of cooking.
     Another quicker but less efficient cheese making method comes from an unknown PCV from the CRD.
Ingredients:
     1 L milk
     ¼ handful of salt
     Your favorite spices
     1 lime

 Combine the milk, salt and spices.
 Heat the milk until just before a boil.
 Remove the milk from the heat and add the lime.
 Stir lightly. Don’t stir too much.
 Allow the milk to curdle for 15 minutes. If the milk doesn’t curdle, add more lime.
 Drain and squeeze out excess milk

    Butter is essentially the fat in the milk that has been beaten and pressed together. It is possible to make butter from cow's milk, goat's milk, and even powdered milk (provided the milkfat content is high enough).
    One quick, easy, but not very efficient method for making butter is to let the milk sit in a double boiler for 20 minutes.  Let the milk cool, then put it in a jar, filling the jar no more than half way up. Shake the jar until you get small lumps of butter. Rinse off the butter and squeeze it together
    For more involved butter production some sort of refrigeration will be needed. Pasteurize the milk and let it sit in a cool place (ideally about 40oF) for 24 hours. The cream should have separated in this time period. Skim off the cream and place it in your churn. The churn could be a simple clean glass jar, as in above, or a larger container with a lid and an inner paddle turned by a crank on top. A well sealed coffee or powdered milk can can be sealed and kicked around like a soccer ball as a churn. The churn should not be filled any more than 1/2 way with cream and the churning action should be continued for 3 minutes to an hour.
Stop churning when the butter globs are about the size of corn kernels. Wash the butter with cool water, and mix with salt (about 1 tbls per pound of butter).
    Goat's milk is harder to separate into cream, and its butter has a paler color.

Combine the eggs, flour, sugar and salt with 6 tbls. of the milk in a double boiler, and stir until the mixture becomes thick.
Add the rest of the milk
Stir in the vanilla essence and any other desired flavoring
Either place in a freezer.
If you don't have a freezer, a simple ice cream maker can be rigged with 2 coffee or powdered milk cans of different sizes. Place the mix in the smaller can. place the smaller can in the larger can. Fill the space between the two cans with alternating layers of ice and salt. Seal both cans tightly and shake or kick around for about 10 minutes. The salt creates a super cooling effect when it mixes with the ice, freezing the ice cream.

Combine sugar, cocoa, syrup, butter and milk and heat to about  238^OF, about 20 higher than boiling. Cool the mix, heat it again until it becomes creamy and add the vanilla and nuts.

Adding milk to your soap recipe will help to remove some of the lye’s harshness. In addition, the following recipe could make a wonderful smelling soap:

Dissolve the honey in the water.
Pour the honey, water, and milk together into the cooking pot and stir well.
Slowly and carefully add the lye and mix.
Add the oil and stir until the mixture becomes thick.
Pour the mixture into the molds and allow to cool.
When cooled, cut into blocks and use.