to pasteurize or not to pasteurize?

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I just got my first dairy cow a week ago and have been enjoying her milk raw. I previously have been purchasing raw milk from a farm down the road for about a month and not experiencing any problems. My question is when making soft cheese that is not going to be aged what should I do? I have been making cheese with raw milk and eating it right on the spot but the more I read, I find that the recipes call for nothing other than pasteurized milk. My cow has not been tested for TB or anything else but my family (4 small children)have not experienced any trouble. Does anyone have any opinions on this subject? I have milked goats and used unpasteurized milk but we mostly consumed that in the form of cheese. Any input would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I will continue to use unpasteurized milk and enjoy it immensely(because there is nothing like fresh milk from the cow(not to insult the goat milkers))!! Thank you all for your advice!!cara lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), October 01, 2000

Answers

The French, who are old hands at cheese making,prefer to use only raw milk for cheese. They say that using pastuerized milk gives much poorer results, not fit to eat!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), October 01, 2000.

I agree... nothing beats fresh goat or cow milk! I grew up on cows milk. We now raise goats and have 1 token Jersey cow! I have not dabbled in making cheese yet from cow milk as I am trying to do goat cheese right now. May take me an eternity to figure it out so it tastes good! I make cheese from fresh goat milk. I have found that the best cheeses, soft, are made from milk i do not pastruize. I am sanitary milking, then strain. I then pour into my big canner, wait til the temp is 80 degrees and add my buttermilk culture and rennet. Makes the best cheese! I have tried pasturized but it tastes "funky" i pour into a glass gallon jug and stick it in the freezer to cool quickly, then i refrigerate. But when i pasturize iot... do that first after straining, it gets a bad flavor. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), October 01, 2000.


I come from two generations of dairy farmers, no one ever pasteurized their milk for use at home. Of course these cows were TB tested regularly as required by the state for commercial milk producers, as well as several other tests, so if you really want peace of mind ask your vet what you should test for and have it done. It is not expensive and only has to be done once a year or less. If your going to drink milk it should be raw, it's better for you and tastes better too.

-- Annie Miller (ann.miller@1st.net), October 02, 2000.

Guess this would depend upon who you purchased this animal from. I couldn't even imagine saying " 4 small children and haven't had any trouble". Lets see..... mircroplasm, listerosis, Johnes and its link now to chrones disease, and in cattle TB of course. Lots of us dairy goat folks drink our milk raw, but then alot of us test our stock regularly, our milking stock that was born and raised here, and I also would never sell or serve raw milk of any sort to young children, elderly and ill, (one small exception here is when they come to me for raw milk because of advanced age and disease knowing the benefits and the risks) Actually most of the cheese that I make and that my friends make is made with pasturized milk, we find that we get much more consistency in the finished product. The feta that I make and then cut into cubes to soak in herbed oils, must be the exact consistency or the cubes will crumble, to make the recipe exactly the same time after time, is done with temperature, and pasturising the milk cuts down on the amount of bacteria in the milk that reacts with the culture and rennet. So like anything else animal/milk/meat related their are just so many ways of doing any given thing, it has little to do with insulting goat milkers and everything to do with getting good information about the stock you raise, then living with those choices. Your comfort level on feeding raw products from unknown animals is just higher than mine, I just want to make sure that your comfort level isn't because you were unaware of the dangers. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 02, 2000.

My family and I have been drinking raw milk for over a year. I drank it while I was pregnant as did my five children. We've gotten nothing from it. I do think you need to be careful but I live close to a mennonite community and am friends with many of them and they don't pasterize either.

-- Kathy (DavidWH6@juno.com), October 03, 2000.


We drank raw milk from our goats for at least ten years, starting when the youngest girl was about three, and never had any health problems from it. I don't suppose that means we couldn't have had any problems -- and when we get a dairy animal again, I will make sure she gets tested as needed. But I think that if you make sure the animals are healthy, get the necessary tests done, and keep the product clean and cold, the risks of problems are very low.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 04, 2000.

I personally prefer drinking raw milk, but I milk my own cow. I cover the pail with cloth and then filter the milk through a milk filter, which is OK during the summer when she's outside. But during the winter (Minnesota, where it seems it's winter 7 months out of the year), she's couped up in the barn and only goes out to drink from the water tank. I refuse to tie her up like dairy farmers do, so where she poops, she lays. Let me tell you, no matter how much you wash the udder, you still have poop hanging from it and her sides. You can't help but get specks of poop on the cloth covering, and of course with the milk going through that covering, you're going to get fecal germs into the milk. So I pasteurize. I'm trying to get a milking machine fixed up, and if I do, then I'll go to drinking raw milk.

-- Elizabeth (eawait@yahoo.com), October 04, 2000.

If you get poop in the milk and then pasteurize don't you just have cooked poop in your milk?

-- evelyn Bergdoll (evandjim@klink.net), October 04, 2000.

Go Evelyn!! :)

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 05, 2000.

I think I will give my two cents worth. My Dad who is a big fan of unpasturizing told me the other day that when you pasturize all the fat gobules break down into tiny pieces and therefore very easily digested, and when you drink unpasturized the gobules stay big and aren't digested they go right through, which is the way it should be. Are you following me? People are drinking skim milk because they say whole milk is too fattening and they are right if it is pasturized. So unpasturized milk is by far the best milk to drink. My family of 4 ( I too have 2 small kids) all we drink is raw cows milk and raw goats milk with no ill effects. When you pasturize you kill all the good and bad bacteria and your left with very unhealthy milk. When all you drink is raw milk you build up immmunity to the bad bacteria and also you have to take alot of care in straining your milk and cooling it fast. I get sick in my stomache when some people are so against raw milk, do some research and you shall find the right answer in raw milk. Also please don't attack a family for drinking raw milk because unlike us who do drink it raw we have done the research and came to the conclusion that it is the best milk to drink health wise. Why do you drink paturized milk? How can you let your family drink that stuff!

-- megan milliken (millikenfarm@altavista.com), October 07, 2000.


THANK YOU MEGAN MILLIKEN!!! I appreciate your answer and your support! I believe that raw milk is the best and my 4 SMALL children agree. I should mention that I spoke to the man who sold me the cow and he said that the cow was tested for TB earlier this year and I should not worry about the cow being sick. A family with SMALL children drank her milk before us. Now I am going to throw out all the pasteurized milk and drink it raw! Thanks everyone for your responses. cara lewis

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), October 08, 2000.

Cara you thanked Megan because it was what you wanted to hear. How about thanking the rest of us for making you go back to the guy you got the cow from and asking about the TB status and the health of the animal you are milking for yourself and your children? Something in your first post you had not done, and have done now....................Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 08, 2000.

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