Quote:
Originally Posted by masraum
Hell yeah, "raw" milk is awesome compared to almost all other milk.
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I grew up on a dairy farm and we only drank raw milk if we were really thirsty and happened to be in the barn. My parents pasteurized the milk for the family in a slow pasteurizer (140 degrees for an hour as I recall). I grew up drinking whole milk all the time, but I prefer 2% now. I do notice a difference between slow pasteurized and flash pasteurized milk. The only failure I've had making cheese was when I used flash pasteurized milk by mistake.
Our milk tank had a cooler of course and a paddle that kept the butterfat from settling on the top of the milk. The paddle only ran when the cooler compressor came on. One time something happened to the cooling system and it didn't get down to temperature, so the compressor - and the paddle - ran constantly for hours. The next morning there were about a dozen softball sized balls of butter floating in the tank. Best butter I ever tasted!
The price you get for your milk is based on the butterfat content. They don't test every tankful, they come around every now and then and test your milk (as I recall it was randomly, about once a month or so). Our milk had already been tested so we got full price for what was essentially 500 gallons of skim milk!
I do notice a difference between slow pasteurized and flash pasteurized milk. The only failure I've had making cheese was when I used flash pasteurized milk by mistake.