Jersey Shore Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s Special Dairy Order Arrived Today
Aggie Ring ’84 likes to make his own cultured butter, cheeses, and crème fraîche for various uses in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the local grocery stores don’t carry dairy products that are up to Aggie Ring standards. Aggie Ring ’84 has a buddy who is a retired Army Medic who runs a coffee and espresso business who hooked Aggie Ring up with a special bottle of heavy cream.
The little Aggie Ring was just as pleased as a little Aggie Ring can be when he saw that it arrived in a glass bottle. “Gee!” said Aggie Ring, “This is just like when we’d buy milk back in the 80s when we were living in Bryan, Texas. “Why, yes is is.” I replied. I thought to myself that dairy products seem so much cleaner when they come in a glass container.
This particular bottle of heavy cream was produced by the Apple Valley Creamery in East Berlin, Pennsylvania. It is approximately 40% to 45% butterfat depending on the cows’ diet at the time of the year. Now, this particular heavy cream is pasteurized only (not ultra-pasteurized, a process that kills off most of the milk or cream’s delicious flavor). Also, it is NOT homogenized. Almost everyone in the USA these days can only buy homogenized or “homo” dairy products. When he has a choice, Aggie Ring is a “non-homo” type of ring because that’s the way he rolls.
Aggie Ring’s favorite thing about “non-homo” heavy cream is that the heavy butterfat separates from the milk and floats to the top of the bottle. Aggie Ring has to use a knife to break through that delicious, heavy sweat cream to get to the rest of the liquid in the bottle before he heats it up to a tepid temperature and adds the bacteria that will culture it overnight so he can make the cultured butter or crème fraîche for his culinary requirements.
The Aggie Ring test for a proper bottle of “non-homo” heavy cream is if he can sit on top of the butterfat that has risen to the top of the bottle for at least 30 seconds before sinking in. For “educational” purposes, Aggie Ring asked me to photograph him sitting on top of that delicious sweet cream. Unfortunately, it took me a bit longer than 30 seconds to adjust the lights and set the exposure on the camera. The last thing I heard Aggie Ring say before he began to sink into the delicious “non-homo” heavy cream was, “Oh dear, this is a kerfuffle, isn’t it?” The next thing I knew, poor Aggie Ring had broken through the butterfat and had sunk to the bottom of the bottle.
When I poured the delicious “non-homo” sweet whole cream into the container Aggie Ring uses to culture it overnight, I had to retrieve him with a spoon. No teeth this time. I asked Aggie Ring, “Does it remind you of an old fashioned Aggie Ring Dunking?” Aggie Ring replied, “Sort of, but there was no Shiner Bock.” I told Aggie Ring, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
Aggie Ring then said, “It’s a good thing I’m a Genuine Texas A&M Aggie Ring pure of heart and in spirit and not a VMI ring. One of those heavy and fat, gaudy VMI rings would have sunk down into the bottle immediately and its lack of Aggie class would have most certainly soured the cream. Also, the artificial stone in most of the VMI rings might have poisoned it as well.” The Aggie Ring is very good at pointing things like this out.
Now… There’s one other type of dairy product that Aggie Ring likes the most. He didn’t want me to say anything about it because it’s very illegal in New Jersey. However, Aggie Ring allowed me to mention it if I didn’t name names because, as Aggie Ring always says, “Snitches wind up in ditches!” So, the little Aggie Ring’s favorite type of milk and cream is the “raw” stuff. Since it’s illegal to sell raw dairy in New Jersey, Aggie Ring has found “a guy” that can hook him up with the “real stuff.” The closest thing I can compare obtaining raw dairy in New Jersey to would be a “drug deal.” You see, when Aggie Ring wants the “raw stuff,” he has to call his “guy” in PA and place an order during the week. Then, on Saturday morning not long after the sunrise, Aggie Ring’s “guy” meets Aggie Ring and others in back of a local train station in a van that has been driven over from PA. Cash exchanges hands and the raw, illegal contraband gets put into Aggie Ring’s car trunk just in case he’s stopped by the dairy police on the way home.
Aggie Ring used to occasionally milk cows at the Texas A&M Dairy Farm in College Station, Texas back when he was a young Aggie Ring and he’d occasionally try milk directly from the cow. Aggie Ring thinks this is the best type of milk in the world.
Aggie Ring says, “The cows up here in PA and in New Jersey must be the happiest cows in the world. They have four wonderful seasons of weather up here and the humidity is almost nonexistent.
Just before I posted this, Aggie Ring said, “Don’t forget to remind them that the road goes on forever and the party never ends!”
Jersey Shore Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s Special Dairy Order Arrived Today
Aggie Ring ’84 likes to make his own cultured butter, cheeses, and crème fraîche for various uses in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the local grocery stores don’t carry dairy products that are up to Aggie Ring standards. Aggie Ring ’84 has a buddy who is a retired Army Medic who runs a coffee and espresso business who hooked Aggie Ring up with a special bottle of heavy cream.
The little Aggie Ring was just as pleased as a little Aggie Ring can be when he saw that it arrived in a glass bottle. “Gee!” said Aggie Ring, “This is just like when we’d buy milk back in the 80s when we were living in Bryan, Texas. “Why, yes is is.” I replied. I thought to myself that dairy products seem so much cleaner when they come in a glass container.
This particular bottle of heavy cream was produced by the Apple Valley Creamery in East Berlin, Pennsylvania. It is approximately 40% to 45% butterfat depending on the cows’ diet at the time of the year. Now, this particular heavy cream is pasteurized only (not ultra-pasteurized, a process that kills off most of the milk or cream’s delicious flavor). Also, it is NOT homogenized. Almost everyone in the USA these days can only buy homogenized or “homo” dairy products. When he has a choice, Aggie Ring is a “non-homo” type of ring because that’s the way he rolls.
Aggie Ring’s favorite thing about “non-homo” heavy cream is that the heavy butterfat separates from the milk and floats to the top of the bottle. Aggie Ring has to use a knife to break through that delicious, heavy sweat cream to get to the rest of the liquid in the bottle before he heats it up to a tepid temperature and adds the bacteria that will culture it overnight so he can make the cultured butter or crème fraîche for his culinary requirements.
The Aggie Ring test for a proper bottle of “non-homo” heavy cream is if he can sit on top of the butterfat that has risen to the top of the bottle for at least 30 seconds before sinking in. For “educational” purposes, Aggie Ring asked me to photograph him sitting on top of that delicious sweet cream. Unfortunately, it took me a bit longer than 30 seconds to adjust the lights and set the exposure on the camera. The last thing I heard Aggie Ring say before he began to sink into the delicious “non-homo” heavy cream was, “Oh dear, this is a kerfuffle, isn’t it?” The next thing I knew, poor Aggie Ring had broken through the butterfat and had sunk to the bottom of the bottle.
When I poured the delicious “non-homo” sweet whole cream into the container Aggie Ring uses to culture it overnight, I had to retrieve him with a spoon. No teeth this time. I asked Aggie Ring, “Does it remind you of an old fashioned Aggie Ring Dunking?” Aggie Ring replied, “Sort of, but there was no Shiner Bock.” I told Aggie Ring, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
Aggie Ring then said, “It’s a good thing I’m a Genuine Texas A&M Aggie Ring pure of heart and in spirit and not a VMI ring. One of those heavy and fat, gaudy VMI rings would have sunk down into the bottle immediately and its lack of Aggie class would have most certainly soured the cream. Also, the artificial stone in most of the VMI rings might have poisoned it as well.” The Aggie Ring is very good at pointing things like this out.
Now… There’s one other type of dairy product that Aggie Ring likes the most. He didn’t want me to say anything about it because it’s very illegal in New Jersey. However, Aggie Ring allowed me to mention it if I didn’t name names because, as Aggie Ring always says, “Snitches wind up in ditches!” So, the little Aggie Ring’s favorite type of milk and cream is the “raw” stuff. Since it’s illegal to sell raw dairy in New Jersey, Aggie Ring has found “a guy” that can hook him up with the “real stuff.” The closest thing I can compare obtaining raw dairy in New Jersey to would be a “drug deal.” You see, when Aggie Ring wants the “raw stuff,” he has to call his “guy” in PA and place an order during the week. Then, on Saturday morning not long after the sunrise, Aggie Ring’s “guy” meets Aggie Ring and others in back of a local train station in a van that has been driven over from PA. Cash exchanges hands and the raw, illegal contraband gets put into Aggie Ring’s car trunk just in case he’s stopped by the dairy police on the way home.
Aggie Ring used to occasionally milk cows at the Texas A&M Dairy Farm in College Station, Texas back when he was a young Aggie Ring and he’d occasionally try milk directly from the cow. Aggie Ring thinks this is the best type of milk in the world.
Aggie Ring says, “The cows up here in PA and in New Jersey must be the happiest cows in the world. They have four wonderful seasons of weather up here and the humidity is almost nonexistent.
Just before I posted this, Aggie Ring said, “Don’t forget to remind them that the road goes on forever and the party never ends!”