An interesting sidebar in our “Is Your Milk Spoiling Faster?” discussion is why does most organic milk stay fresher longer? It’s not because the cows are free of bovine-growth-hormone and the commune-members sing them lullabies every night.
Rather, much of organic milk is “ultra-pasteurized.” This means the pasteurization process occurs at a higher temperature than just regular pasteurization. More bacteria get killed, and so it stays fresh for longer. Not all organic milk is ultra-pasteurized, and some regular milk is, so be sure to look for milk that says “ultra-pasteurized.” An exciting entry on the different kinds of pasteurization can be found here.
However, pasteurization removes both good and bad bacteria, as well as proteins and flavor. So, unless you’re gonna install a cow in your kitchen, or join the raw-milk underground, there’s going to be a tradeoff. Personally, I only use milk as a conduit for cereal so it doesn’t really matter what it tastes like, it just needs to not go bad within two days of purchase.
(With thanks to commenter VA_White!)
(Photo: amyadoyzie)
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I was in Taiwan for a while, and the milk there tastes different than here in the US. It has way more of a milk taste. Wonder if more taste = less pasteurization.
Supposedly this is also why our milk doesn’t taste very sweet–they choose the cheapest route of pasteurization to meet government standards which sacrifices quality and taste.
The OU-D symbol is the Orthodox Union’s kosher symbol and has nothing to do with ultra-pasteurization. The D stands for dairy.
Wes_Sabi is correct. The image is misleading. That would be kosher milk, not ultra-pasteurized milk
If you only use milk for cereal or coffee, and take a long time to go through it, isn’t it more economical to just find an almond or soy milk that you like and use that? They usually cost a little more, but are getting less expensive, and if you take a long time to go through carton, you might as well get something that will take longer to expire. Silk soy milk usually lasts two to three weeks. The time used will negate the slight extra cost. Some soy and almond milks don’t even need to be refrigerated until opened, whereas milk has already started to age before you even purchase it.
This probably isn’t an option if you really love the taste of milk and drink it plain, but it seems useless to buy a big jug of milk that will expire quickly if you’re only using a couple spoon fulls or less daily.
We use Horizon Organic milk and find that it not only lasts much longer, it actually tastes much better than other (non-organic) brands. I don’t know how it compares with other organic brands though.
We’ve found that the better taste even makes the skim version tolerable.
@Katxyz: One of my exs told me that you can freeze half and half, and it will not taste bad when thawed. I contemplated buying a half gallon, and freezing it in pint mason jars, but since half and half usually lasts for a month, and I did drink a half gallon in two weeks, I never did. I forgot to pick it up one time, and it was a few days before I could pick up more, and I learned to drink it w/o it now, so it’s a moot point for me.
Raw Milk Underground sounds kinda sexy.
If you just use milk for cereal, like Ben, soy milk and almond milk are good alternatives. Almond milk tastes way better, imho, but nothing beats the taste of an ice cold glass of cow milk with chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
So the organic fanboys are actually drinking the ultra-pasteurized, more processed, milk with less beneficial bacteria??
Sweet, sweet irony…
@Katxyz: Jinx. Exactly.
It’s like buying really good vodka just for mixed drinks.
@stanner: It doesn’t compare very well. It is possibly a step above regular milk but not by much.
You can see how various brands of organic milk rate with this site.
[www.cornucopia.org]
@Skiffer: more processed, milk with less beneficial bacteria??
Well to be fair I wouldn’t say turning up the tempature is “more processed” and I can’t say I have heard anyone talk about organic having “more beneficial bacteria”. Usually people are more concerned about growth hormones.
I drink non-organic Lactaid and it, too, stays fresh much, much longer than the lactose-having supermarket stuff. Does Lactaid also pasteurize at a higher temperature?
@Katxyz: I don’t drink milk, nor do I eat cereal, but I do use milk for cooking. In general, can you substitute soy/almond milk for regular and get the same effect in a dish? If so, I’m totally there. I hate buying milk and having half of it go bad.
borden shelf stable milk can stay good for months if you don’t open it, no refrigeration needed.
@ratnerstar: You can definitely use soy milk. I don’t like soy milk but my girlfriend does and is lactose intolerant so we always have both. We always use the soy milk to cook with and I never taste a difference, even though I don’t like soy milk.
I haven’t had a glass of milk in years, I hate the stuff.
@picardia: According to their site, yes it is ultra-pasteurized. [www.lactaid.com] I always wondered why my parent’s lactaid lasted for a month+, I always just assumed it had to do with removing the sugars in milk, I wouldn’t be surprised if this had something to do with it as well.
I sometimes get raw milk at the farmer’s market. Nothing tastes better than that.
Other than that it doesn’t matter what we buy as far as expiration, we go through 2 gallons a week. Plus, I buy soy, almond, and rice milk because I like that in my oats.
@stanner: Horizon milk is crap. Do your homework,Dean foods is a dirty company! Dont give them your money.
@Tmoney02: YES! I agree
this is a great site.
[www.cornucopia.org]
[www.animalsvoice.com]
[www.newmediaexplorer.org]
@ratnerstar: I’ve experimented a bit with this. Things like casseroles and instant mac & cheese that just use milk as a source of liquid work just fine with soy milk. The flavor is different, but not so you’d notice in most dishes. I wouldn’t attempt to use it for baking (the fat content is probably too low) or for any dish where you boil milk down to make a creamy sauce (like home-made mac & cheese.)
Another thing about soy milk is the flavor of different brands varies a lot. There are some brands I like to drink and some I just can’t stand.
@Orv: @Tmoney02: Thanks for the advice!
There’s a great episode of Good Eats [[www.foodnetwork.com]] which talked about all the diff. kinds of pasteurization. He did make arguments about it killing flavor…
Be it true or not, I’d rather my milk not spoil these days
I only drink milk from a special “birthday party” farm where the cows celebrate all day. They are free to roam about the festivities at will, and only eat the highest quality baked goods. They are never scolded – in fact they are reassured hourly that they are the best cows, ever. When it comes time to be milked, they relax in special cushioned massage chairs.
I think that to drink anything else is just disgusting.
@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:
Freezing anything in a mason jar is probably not a good idea, as it would expand and crack the jar.
Additionally, I think you mean it is a Moo point.
I’m pretty sure most dairy, regardless of organic or not, is ultrapasteurized. A key component of the ultrapasteurization process is that while the temperature is run up a little higher than standard pasteurization, the time for which it remains elevated is short enough that it takes less energy to run ultrapasteurization. It allows a single plant to (a) process more milk in a given amount of time and (b) spend less per unit volume milk in that process. In a commodity product like milk, the margins are so low that bulk and efficiency are vital to maintaining a profitable business. The fact of the matter is that ultrapasteurization affects the taste of milk more than standard pasteurization but the difference is not noticable or at least not significant to most people.
@dianabanana: I’ve had a lot more raw milk in Taiwan. I recall going to the store and they would sell raw chocolate milk. I couldn’t get use to it and would look for only the pasteurized stuff.
I don’t like milk from those long haired pot eating hippy cows.
Raw is the only way to go. Take antibiotics for the sniffles and drink your pasteurized milk, don’t complain to me when your immune system fails and your allergies are unbearable.
@ratnerstar: Also, you can use it to make ice “cream.” It’s just going to taste somewhat to very different.
@ratnerstar: Soy milk is definitely a no-go for cream or cheese based sauces and white gravies. It was an icky experience.
“Personally, I only use milk as a conduit for cereal so it doesn’t really matter what it tastes like, it just needs to not go bad within two days of purchase.”
QFT.
Any word on the “micro filtration” version of milk? Does it last longer?
Everybody preaching “soy milk” needs to know that people with some thyroid disorders cannot consume soy products. (And thyroid disorders, particularly hypothryoidism, are surprisingly common, especially in middle age on.)
@shefarted: Well, I wouldn’t fill to the brim, and as milk has suspended solids in it, I don’t think it would expand to bursting. I’ve frozen OJ in it’s original container, and it’s expanded, but never burst the paper carton. Now you’re going to make me buy .5 & .5 just to freeze it to see if it will burst a jar.
Viva la revolution raw!
My great-grandfather owned a dairy, and we are part of the “raw milk underground” since we own a portion of a herd of cows and get a delivery of organic raw milk every week. We have never had any issue with raw milk going bad, even when there is still some milk left on the 7th night and we have to boil the bottles and have them ready to go back the next morning. The quality is incomparable – we buy a gallon of organic pasteurized milk most weeks for cooking and when you take a drink of it, it’s clearly lesser quality than the raw milk. (And you won’t believe how horrible non-organic pasteurized milk tastes once you get used to drinking the real thing.) Not to mention all the health benefits of real milk that dead milk simply doesn’t have. In most states in order to have or buy raw milk you must buy into a herd, a “cow-share” program, or other similarly structured CSA farm where you are legally a part-owner or shareholder. Usually you buy a share or two and then pay a maintenance fee for the care of your cow each month. For our herd, a share is a one-time $75.oo fee and the monthly maintenance per share is $30 and some change. For that we receive one gallon of fresh raw milk per share each week (four or five per month, in other words). I highly recommend everyone find such a program in their area. The health benefits alone are worth it.
On soy milk, to quote Lewis Black: “Soy milk. That’s bullshit on a stick. There’s no such thing as soy milk. I know that, because there’s no soy tit, is there? I don’t know a lot, but I know you need a breast for milk. It’s soy juice; nobody’s gonna fucking drink soy juice.”
I do drink soy juice, the Asian kind that’s super sweet.
@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:
a) my youtube embed didn’t work, let’s try again:
+ Watch video
b) Cardboard isn’t glass (and despite my lack of physics education, I’m trying to communicate that the rigid properties of glass make it different than cardboard), which is why your OJ doesnt explode.
c) I would still be surprised if a mason jar, with the lid screwed on, that is only half-full of half and half wouldn’t crack. (Half full of half and half… there’s got to be something punny there…)
My mom used to freeze full gallons of 2% in the plastic milk jug back when I was a kid, and the container would expand quite a bit as a result.
Nothing the matter with Horizon organic milk.
Cornucopia Institute, on the other hand … their ratings reflect only which companies have paid to quote sponsor unquote their research. If you decline to buy a quote sponsorship unquote, their research mysteriously finds that you are speaking harshly to your dairy cows and not feeding them the yummy organic alfalfa they crave.
I saw 60 Minutes the other day and Andy Rooney was saying how dairy farmers dug their own holes selling all this crap people call milk. I couldn’t agree more. 2%, skim milk, whatever the hell they sell shouldn’t qualify as milk. The same happens with dairy products like most American yogurts and cheeses (I don’t even think they call Kraft Singles “cheese”). You want good dairy, go out of the United States.
@angryblur: I guess he probably doesn’t like coconut milk, either.
@postnocomments: You are right, all things not American are better… mmm… queso fresco!
You know, you don’t have to eat the mass produced stuff. There are quite a few artisian style cheeses and other products available and made right here in the U.S.A. Of course, you have to pay for it and maybe even shop somewhere other than Wal-mart or Kroger to get it.
@dangermike:
This is not true. Not every dairy uses ultra-pasteurization. Most dairies do not. A few dairies use the ultra-pasteurization process; Horizon is one of them.
But even Horizon doesn’t ultra-pasteurize ALL their milk. Their gallon jugs (available in my area of Texas) are processed with regular pasteurization and do not last the extra two weeks like their half-gallon cartons do.
I got really excited that Horizon was selling gallon jugs and when the milk went bad in six days, I looked at the label and figured out the difference.
You must read the label of the carton/jug and if you want the longer-lasting milk, it will specifically say “ultra-pasteurized” and not just “pasteurized.”
I made a vegan cake once using soy milk and that was all I could taste in the finished product. Do not want! If I have to bake vegan again, I’m using the rice milk.
One thing about ultra-pasteurized *cream* in particular is it takes longer to whip. Ultrapasteurizing breaks down the fat globules, or something. My favorite whipping cream is just cream that’s pasteurized — good stuff.
I say nothing less than Whole Milk. No soy, 2 percent, 1 percent, skim. I want all my fat. Years ago that was the only way to get it. Now people worry about fat in the diet but we have more obese today than ever. Get back to eating things that aren’t good for you. The comment earlier about allergies is probably right one the mark.
Soy milk makes my hed esplode.
If you use a minimal amount of milk infrequently Horizon sells shelf stable milk in small drink boxes.
@Katxyz: Almond, soy and rice milk all taste really really gross with coffee.
@VA_White: I saw that (texas for me too) and was all excited and then I noticed the expiration dates. The Horizon milk tastes a little better but the best part about it is that it doesn’t got bad for a month and I never have to throw it out! Opposite of the organic milk, HEB sells some “Mootopia” milk that’s something like half the sugar, twice the protein and no lactose compared to regular milk. Good comparison to the fancy organic ones, especially since I usually buy both :-p
I really would rather buy local organic milk but I can’t find it. And we use so little milk that I need the UP milk because it goes bad later. I was tossing half-full half-gallons of regular pasteurized milk which was a big waste.
HEB has their brand of organic milk but it’s not UP milk. Ditto for Albertson’s. So Horizon it is, even if their cows do not live the idyllic pastoral life we’re supposed to imagine they do.
When we lived in Europe, we always bought the tetrapack shelf-stable Parmalat milk in the liter boxes. The nonfat was tolerable but the full-fat milk tasted burnt.
Almond milk is delicious in cereal, and the plain flavor is good in coffee if you don’t overdo it. Plus it’s much healthier (for you and the planet) than soy or cow nectar.