Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the idea of mutual self-interest. If a farmer were to sell you
raw milk that made you sick, your family could sue him into
oblivion. So it is in his best interest, if he sells raw milk at all,
to make sure it is pristine. Many such farmers use small-scale
low-temperature vat pasteurization just to be sure, and this
process is less damaging to the milk proteins than standard
pasteurization processes.
One other layer of protection is to only use raw milk to make
hard cheeses that are aged for longer than two months. The
process of cheese-making, when combined with the
conditions of aging in cheese, serve to eliminate potential
pathogens and render the cheese safe. This only applies to
aged hard cheeses! Soft cheeses and those eaten less than two
months from manufacture should be considered as risky as
raw milk, and I personally avoid making cheese from raw
milk, but that's an individual choice.
If you use raw milk in cheese-making, there are only two
procedural changes you'll need to adopt. The first is that you
can avoid using calcium chloride (described later), and the
other is that when heating the milk, especially for
thermophilic cheeses, you will need to top-stir the milk. Top
stirring is just slowly dragging a utensil across the top
quarter-inch of milk in order to keep the milk fats from
separating out.
To find raw milk, I recommend the following Internet
resources:
• A Campaign for Real Milk:
www.realmilk.com
• The Weston A. Price Foundation:
www.westonaprice.org
