Thursday, March 10, 2016

Raw vs. Fresh

The government, against popular demand (as we sometimes observe to occur), made pasteurized milk the norm some years ago. People wanted the fresh milk to which they were accustomed, but it didn't take long to change the masses' taste, and pasteurized and homogenized milk became the norm.

My mom came from the country and when we would go back to visit her folks, who still kept cows, I always was afraid and refused to taste the "raw milk."

"Raw Milk."

Just the moniker is enough to turn you away.

Well, I never call it that any more. "Fresh apples" means apples off the tree that have not been in storage or cooked, right? So milk straight from the cow that has not been cooked is "fresh milk," and milk that has been processed is - you guessed it - "processed milk."

So whenever you hear me or read me say "fresh milk," or "processed milk," you will know what I mean.

Now for a treatment of the considerations for choosing to consume one or the other:

If you contaminate fresh milk, you had better cook it if you don't want to be sick.

If you contaminate processed milk, you had better cook it again if you do not want to be sick.

I once heard an emotional reference to "raw milk" as the culprit for someone's acquaintance who had gone blind, or some such malady. In fact, it was not "raw milk" that had been the problem; the malady had been caused by bacteria that had been inserted into the milk.

One way or the other, you must ensure that your milk is not contaminated.

But when milk sours, if it contains its natural live enzymes, it will not sour quickly or severely, whereas cooked milk, in which everything has been killed, is a nice environment for fostering bacteria, and it sours rapidly and severely - to the point that you cannot stand to drink it.