Has anyone ever tried raw milk?

[Fountain79]

I read an article about it here:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1598525,00.html

and I have heard it discussed on the news. Apparently people who try it swear by it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Sure.

Right out of the cow's tit. Can't recommend it though. There's a reason Louis Pasteur is famous.

[Parche]

8. Cows Tit

That is udderly disgusting!!!!!! :hi:

[pokerfan]

24. Pasteurization is great

Homogenization, not so much if some studies are to be believed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_and_heart_disease#Homogenised_milk

[SeattleGirl]

2. Used to drink it when I was a kid, and visiting my uncle's dairy farm.

Been too long to remember how it tasted.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. i used to drink raw goat milk as a child. the goat came by the house everyday

my mom told me this story a few days ago when i remarked that i liked goat milk yogurt.

[Critters2]

4. I have parishioners who have organic dairy cattle

and use some of the milk themselves, raw. They say they prefer it to the pasteurized stuff. I'm kind of obsessive about all things microbial, so I'd rather not.

[NMDemDist2]

5. we used to buy milk from the dairy. after it was pasturized but BEFORE

it was homogenized

it was great! but you had to shake it hard before pouring to mix the cream back in

[applegrove]

6. I tried it as a kid. Loved it. Got it directly from the farm I was staying at.

But I hear there are a number of diseases associated with unpasturized milk..so sadly I will never drink it again. It was creamy and lovely.

[achtung_circus]

7. Yes, from something called a house cow.

Most of the cows were beef, but there was one Holstein to supply milk to the house, cats, dogs and as emergency rations for orphaned calves.

You can either skim off the cream and use that for butter or coffee or oatmeal (yum) or stir it back into a semi-homogoneous state.

Doesn't matter how hard you try, though, disease can be a real concern.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Yes, millions of people. Until pasteurization, that's all humanity had for milk.

I also have had it - I prefer it to the bastardized, unnatural, godawful shit they serve in grocery stores.

[doc03]

10. I used to drink it all the time

at my Grandmothers farm. She only had a half dozen cows and sold her milk to Carnation to be made into canned milk, there were expensive sanitary requirements to sell to a regular dairy such as you needed a refrigerated stainless tank and I believe automatic milkers. Anyway we just poured it through a rag to strain the flies out, it was great.

[mainegreen]

11. yup. I buy it every week at the grocery store.

Tastes better IMHO. Plus it doesn't make us as.... gassy.

[MrsMatt]

12. I grew up on it

my father was somewhat of an old school dairy farmer (primarily due to lack of money to modernize) - his herd was rotationally grass fed (along with some corn feed , which we had to secure to keep the barn cats from using as cat litter), and were bred seasonally to freshen in the fall so my dad could get his late summer early fall field work done prior to calving and milking.

Our milk came straight from the milkers - sometimes had straw in in. We just picked it out.

Now we drink pasturized, unhomogenized milk from a local dairy operation. If I need raw milk for a particular recipe (and I sometimes do - but for cooking purposes only), I just get it from a friend who has a dairy herd.

I really loved the taste, but now with kids who are not farm raised, I just don't want the risk involved with unpasturized milk. My husband and I were both dairy farm kids, and were exposed to more bacteria and developed tolerance that our children just aren't capable of raised in a city.

[LeftyMom]

13. Only the human kind.

:9

[hedgehog]

14. Does anyone know what bacteria pasteurization is designed to kill?

At one time, it was possible to catch TB from cow's milk. I know that ultra-pasteurized milk can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container.

[Lex]

15. Some guy around here died because of drinking raw milk

or non-pastuerized milk anyway. I'll see if I can find the article.

[Lex]

16. Our state epidemiologist just released this:

Raw milk – milk that has not been pasteurized – contains harmful bacteria that may cause illness and possible death,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Jeff Engel said. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 45 outbreaks of food-borne illness associated with unpasteurized milk or cheese made from unpasteurized milk occurred between 1998 to May 2005. These outbreaks accounted for

1,007 illnesses, 104 hospitalizations, and two deaths.”

Engel added that the Wilkes County outbreak serves as a reminder to all North Carolinians that consuming raw milk or raw milk products is dangerous and a risk to one’s health.

Health officials have confirmed one case of campylobacteriosis in a man who drank unpasteurized milk. That man, who was hospitalized, is now recovering. Investigators are looking into several other probable infections in people who drank from the same milk source.

Campylobacteriosis is one of several diseases that can be acquired by consuming raw milk.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770425077

[mainegreen]

19. 2 deaths? Let me guess: old people who forget and left their milk out and open on the counter?

Health officials who say raw milk is like risking your life seriously need to learn about statics and the long term damage to you health caused by pasteurized and homogenized milk.
This isn't really directed at you. It's just ridiculous the extent our health officials are in businesses pockets.

[ThomCat]

17. Sure when I was a kid.

From the cow/goat into the bucket, and from the bucket into me. Still thick and warm.

I was a milk adict when I was a kid.

[DeepBlueC]

18. yeah, tasty stuff

It was about 35 years ago when I worked for one summer at The Vershire School in Vermont. Neighbor sold raw milk. You had to bring your own jug. I like milk, but this milk I loved. It was the best thing about that summer. The place was nuts, 10 year olds deciding on their own to camp out for the night in the woods ... no one noticed until the next afternoon. Chaos, and not the fun kind.

[DemoTex]

20. Many times.

I drove a milk tanker truck for the university dairy at Auburn in the mid-60s. I often drank the warm stuff from the milk machine at 4:30 am.

[Nicole]

21. Grew up drinking it.

Ice cold from the storage vats. :9

Store bought milk just doesn't taste as good so I no longer drink milk.

[madrchsod]

22. i`ve had it and if it`s cold and no more than a day old it`s not bad

i would`t touch the stuff if it was a day old. course that was when i visited my uncles farm in the 50`s when they did`t load the cows with hormones.

[jgraz]

23. Great for drinking, but AWESOME for cooking

Anything that's mostly dairy, especially custard, tastes great when made with raw milk. I use it for extra-special batches of ice cream and eggnog during the holidays, both of which use a cooked custard base. Since you heat the custard enough to kill bacteria, the health concerns aren't really an issue.