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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Things We Keep

Years ago before the Internet whenever we read an interesting article on a topic that attracted us we would either keep the article or photocopy the section that drew our attention. Over time there is a build up of material and because there is a filing cabinet they find their way into the cabinet under some heading or another.

In recent years it became obvious that it was easier to research a topic via our own extensive collection of books, the public library and the Internet. The filing cabinet of documents becoming largely redundant. Gradually a review of this collection of suspension folders has been occurring and much material is finding its way into either compost, recycling or reused as note paper before joining the previous two homes.

Anything that is extremely rare and worth keeping which isn't much joins a binder and is held in place with a plastic pocket.

One such binder is on cheese making. It contains many recipes for making cheeses and technical articles on the process.

This morning by chance over Green Tea (being a fast day that is all we get) I reviewed an article from the filing cabinet before deciding its fate.
 
These are extracts. I'd love to give attribution but there is no indication of source on the photocopy to help.

Rennet works best when milk is warm and contains soluble calcium. Milk naturally contains calcium in a soluble form, but if it is boiled or heated to a high temperature this calcium becomes insoluble, and rennet will not work. “

Pasteurisation also kills most of the lactic acid-producing bacteria in milk”

In the past acid-curd cheese was traditionally made from milk which had gone sour. However, this was raw milk which soured 'normally'. It is not advisable to use pasteurised milk which has soured or gone off for cheese making or in cooking. Pasteurized milk keeps for longer because nearly all the lactic acid bacteria are destroyed by the heat treatment. If it does go 'off' this may be caused by the growth of other bacteria which could be harmful. It is wiser to throw such milk away.”
 
I'd have to dispute the claim that pasteurised milk keeps longer with the exception of UHT milk. Our raw milk keeps well for 10 days. And why would you put UHT milk into your body?

So what was the point in introducing pasteurisation to milk? A conscious effort to increase Osteoporosis or provide a medium for dangerous bacteria?

4 comments:

  1. It created a processed milk industry and now we are paying for the privilege in more ways than one!

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  2. I'm surprised that, as a country person who is interested in food production, you don't know why milk is pasteurised.
    If you do a google search or just a bit of reading on the history of TB, you will find out why milk began to be pasteurised. Even in our current times, many migrants from the UK who are still alive and just reaching pension age will show TB scarring on X-rays. They may never have been diagnosed with active TB but the scars will show because the TB bacillus has infected them.
    TB in milk is still considered a problem in the UK because pasteurisation is not mandatory.

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    Replies
    1. You've raised a good point. Just to clarify there are two types of TB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis). A clearer picture is found in http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/tuberculosis.html and also in http://www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-ranch/risk-of-bovine-tb-from-raw-milk-consumption. Also the best reference on raw milk is Dr. Ron Schmid's book, The Untold Story of Milk.
      They are rather long articles but worthy of a read. In the past there was a belief that raw milk could have been a source of some TB infections. Later research indicates that that belief was unjustified and that the sources of infection were unclear with many other factors in play. It is now thought that TB infection from raw milk is highly unlikely for many reasons and especially now that transmission is better understood.

      It is important to know, understand and trust your sources of food and that includes raw milk.

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  3. I'm cynical when it comes to agnotolgy coming out of the USA.

    I'd rather believe the science than source my information from organisations that make money from selling raw milk.
    http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/bovine_tuberculosis.pdf
    http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/general/mbovis.pdf

    ReplyDelete