Thoughts on Milk Part 2

Other than the bacteria in the milk, are there differences between raw milk and pasteurized milk? Yes. Some people can taste the difference between raw milk and pasteurized milk. The pasteurization process raises the milk to 161F for 15 seconds. Ultra High Temperature (UHT) Pasteurization brings the milk to 212F for one-tenth of a second. Can such short exposure to heat really do much? Well, it does kill the germs, but it also changes the milk. Any cheese maker will tell you that, even though the UHT milk was heated for only one-tenth of a second (that's 0.01 of a second), you can't make mozzarella cheese from it. The other pasteurization process still changes the cheese making process, too, although not quite as dramatically.

If you're baking or cooking with the milk, it's going to be cooked anyway, but if you're drinking cold or warm milk for the health benefits, there are some things you should know. Most vitamins are fragile, so Vitamins A, C, B6, and B12 are destroyed. Vitamin D, along with other some of the other vitamins are (re)introduced into pasteurized milk as an additive. Such introductions of vitamins are not always in a form that is easily absorbed by the body. (An interesting side note: Vitamin D helps prevent a bone disease called rickets, and produces a natural steroid in the body that helps us heal and deal with allergens. It is produced naturally in the body only when sunlight hits your skin and when there's enough "good" cholesterol under that skin to make it with!) Many minerals and proteins will change when exposed to heat, too.

If you're drinking milk for the flavor, or if your using milk to bake and cook with, there are some other things you need to know about milk, but the raw versus pasteurized milk affects you less. Unless, of course, you miss your grandmother, or great-grandmother's recipes made with milk and wonder what the difference is. People with access to raw milk would allow it to "ripen" at room temperature for a few hours before adding it to biscuits, pancakes, cornbread and such, or even to "clabber"; a process that allows the milk to become a very thick curd with no expression of whey. This soured and/or clabbered milk reacts beautifully with baking soda to produce a wonderful rise in the oven. (This is also the original "buttermilk" flavor, although real buttermilk is a whole different story.) However, if you're drinking milk as a way of getting lots of good vitamins, minerals, fatty acids (good for brain growth), good cholesterols, and proteins (amino acids), then you should consider drinking your milk raw.

More on the kinds of milk and its nutrients in the next part. :)

Sources for more info:

Clabbered Milk: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/word-of-mouth/word-of-mouth-clabber-073245

More on Clabbered Milk: http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/clabberedmilk

Vitamin D and Milk: http://vitamind.ucr.edu/milk.html

Changes in the Mineral Balance of Milk (Cost is $39 for the article): http://vitamind.ucr.edu/milk.html

Raw Versus Pasteurized: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/04/24/raw-milk.aspx

10 Things You Should Know About Raw Milk: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/05/10-things-you-should-know_n_211715.html