Re: Milk

Here, it is not legal to give someone raw milk to drink....a whole nother set of laws to sell fresh from cow milk..extremely seldom does anyone try. Antibiotic in milk is easy to test, every dairy farm HAS KITS TO TEST for left over medicines in cow that was treated. Same for meat. Every animal that goes to market is tagged so the home farm is easy to find...the animal gets a quick test before killing and more inspection after..any medicine in the animal will be tracked back to the farm. The farmers of America gaurantee the wholesome good ness of their products.

Re: Milk

Sorry nearly choked on my drink there, some of the most intensive farming of cattle goes on in USA with it the use of antibiotics goes way up. When we here they are importing the methods here it usually means years of fighting to stop the huge farms developing.

I don't for a moment claim UK is great for farm animal welfare but neither is USA I am afraid.

Re: Milk

Very true. I have farming relatives. Farmers here in the US have to be very careful that there are NO chemicals/antibiotics in their milk. Every load is tested, and if there are antibiotics present, that load has to be dumped, at a huge loss to the farmer. Inspections are tough, and it is to everyone's benefit that the farmer does a good job taking care of his cows.

Re: Milk

Yep we covered all this stuff here:

http://www.over50sforum.com/showthread.php?t=22925

Commercial supermarket milk is pasteurised of course and that process alters the molecular structure of the components. It strips out much of the goodness.

Raw milk, straight from the cow as Nature intended, does not go off in the same way as pasteurised milk. It will happily sit in the fridge all week and beyond and even then it doesn't go "off", doesn't have bad smell, it simply ferments and gets more sour from the action of the natural lactobacteria.

There are sadly not many raw milk producers in the UK any more but they do exist and it's worth seeking one out. At present the selling of raw milk is still permitted in the UK but no doubt they will eventually cut off that healthy and natural source just as they have other good things.

The irony is, that the commercial dairies producing for supermarkets have a much more lax approach to hygiene and bacteria/disease because in their eyes, they know the milk is destined to be heat treated which ought to kill any bugs. Problem is it's not a full-proof process.

Raw milk producers on the other hand understand completely the risks of bacteria and disease and take it very seriously. The have their cows tested far more regularly and obviously have to meet strict standards.

Re: Milk

I won't buy supermarket milk because a) I do not buy any food from supermarkets, and b) it comes in plastic bottles.

Not sure I would trust raw milk in the UK anymore because so many herds are injected with antibiotics/growth hormones and fed on heaven knows what.

As a child in Eire I used to milk the pasture fed cows on my uncle's farm and drank some of the best tasting milk ever.

Currently my milk comes from local cows, is processed by a dairy about 6 miles away and is delivered about 4:30am. It tastes good and normally I do not have any problems. Not sure what went wrong with it today. Anyway it made a good batch of soda bread and some scones so it did not go to waste.

Re: Milk

How do you make soda bread? Love fresh warm bread, would like to try it.

Re: Milk

Here is the recipe that I use - it is very quick and easy:-

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients



170g/6oz self-raising wholemeal flour

170g/6oz plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml/½ pint buttermilk


Method


Tip the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk, mixing quickly with a large fork to form a soft dough. (Depending upon the absorbency of the flour, you may need to add a little milk if the dough seems too stiff but it should not be too wet or sticky.)

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form into a round and flatten the dough slightly before placing on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Cut a cross on the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

Re: Milk

I confess I was worried about all that stuff when looking into raw milk. When I spent 45mins chatting with the farmer he was somewhat dismayed at the prevalence of such myths and patiently explained to me in great detail how his cows were kept, treated and regularly tested. They were not given growth hormones at all. They were fed on organic home grown feeds which were only supplemented during winter months with things like maize and I pushed him further on this to get assurance that none of the feeds were GM foods which he wholeheartedly gave.

Raw milk is full of goodness. To me it tasted no different to supermarket milk which surprised me a little. I was expecting that deep milky taste that I remembered when I was at infant school when they used to give us milk. Turns out that wasn't raw milk either back then, just full fat pasteurised milk.

Raw milk is great imo, but getting harder to get hold of, like so many great healthy foods. Hard not to be slightly sceptical of the great food authorities like the WHO and FDA. Seems at times they don't want us to have good natural healthy foods. Perhaps they want to limit our lifespans and feed Big Pharma profits by having us spend $billions on medicines and treatments. . . .

Re: Milk

@ Silver Tabby

Another great soda bread recipe here at River Cottage

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes...ese-soda-bread

Apple, Guinness and Cheese Soda Bread

Makes 1 large loaf
•250g strong white bread flour
•200g spelt flour
•50g oats
•10g fine salt
•20g baking powder
•100g roughly chopped dessert apple, such as Dorset Russet
•75g grated Cheddar
•100ml sunflower or rapeseed oil
•250ml buttermilk
•250ml Guinness

Preheat the oven to 230°C/Gas Mark 8. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the flours, oats, salt and baking powder. Add the chopped apple and 50g of the cheese and mix in. Make a well in the centre.

Combine the oil, buttermilk and Guinness and pour into the dry ingredients. The next stage is the most important part of making good soda bread: the less you handle the mixture, the lighter and tastier the loaf will be. 'Feather' your hand out like a giant fork and gently combine the ingredients. This should take no more than a minute and the mixture should only just be combined.

Put plenty of flour on your work surface and tip your mixture out on to it. Shape the dough into a round (don't knead it, just pat it into shape). Transfer it to the baking sheet and top with the remaining cheese. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and well risen.

Re: Milk

Never thought of adding oats, Realspeed, but that sounds delicious!