Raw Milk Is an Ingredient, Not Just a Drink

Reader Contribution by Eric Reuter
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Raw meat. Raw eggs. Raw milk. Which of these is not like the other? Two are unremarkable features of American cuisine; consider rare steak and eggs over-easy. The other is unthinkable to many palates. Two are everyday staples; envision the cases of meat and eggs anchoring the back wall of most grocery stores. The other is a highly controversial substance sold, where legal, through loopholes and hurdles. Why the difference? Among other factors, we tend to think of the first two as ingredients, and the last as a final product, and this affects the way we produce, market, and consume milk.

All raw animal products carry an element of risk; this is why packaged meat and eggs, and restaurant menus, carry that ubiquitous warning to proceed at our own risk. For various reasons, our regulatory system and our culinary culture don’t treat milk the same way. Can you imagine if all meat and eggs came pre-cooked, in order to protect the consumer from possible harm? That’s effectively what pasteurization does for milk, changing it from a raw, “hazardous” ingredient into a finished, “safe” product, and altering our perception of its potential. Most consumers know lots of ways to prepare meat or eggs, but milk? That’s just for drinking.

Yet there’s a middle ground for milk-handling, one that is mostly ignored but is highly relevant for those with small dairy herds or who want access to fresh, local dairy: view milk as an ingredient, not as a drink.  As Anne Mendelson points out in her excellent book Milk (excerpted by MOTHER EARTH NEWS in 2011), for most of dairy’s history, fresh/raw milk was not something widely consumed for the simple reason that it spoiled too quickly in the absence of effective refrigeration and transportation. Most people soured, fermented, cultured, or otherwise altered the fresh product to make it tastier and/or more stable. This is a similar concept to cooking or curing raw meats, with the same benefits and results, yet it’s mysterious to most Americans, including our own farm’s customers.

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