If someone says something like do you want milk for your coffee, tea, whatever, what do you expect. For me I would expect whole milk, but it seems like many people who are offering milk are really pushing 2% or 1% as milk.
So what do you expect when someone says milk?
What is half and half - I assume it’s have whole milk and half light cream. If so can I get half and half by mixing equal amounts of the 2? Also can I get it by mixing heavy cream with 2%?
How does the milk we buy in the supermarket differ in taste to milk from a cow (ok lets say a refrigerated cow)? Would milk direct from a cow be more like light cream?
I can’t answer all your questions, but I can tackle one of them.
I assume by this question that you do not live in the States. Half and half is half milk and half cream, which is packaged and sold that way. It’s sort of a compromise between milk and cream and is slightly heavier than milk. It’s not used for drinking, unless you want to add it to tea or coffee. It’s generally used for baking. It comes in quart and pint containers.
I knew what it was used for, well knew about coffee and such and though that was it’s primary usage, didn’t know it was used all that much for baking. So by mixing cream and milk I should get 1/2 & 1/2?
Part of the reason I asked these questions is that I know that milk is diluted with water, so I was wondering what actual milk would taste like, I would assume heavier like that of 1/2&1/2. Also with all the ‘grades’ of milk (skim, 1% (even 1.5%), 2%. whole, 1/2 &1/2 (assume it fits here), light cream, heavy cream) that milk is somehow sepperated into different weighted fractions, possibly through some column seperation perhaps simularly to that of petrolium.
So if so is 1/2 and 1/2 a combining of 2 fractions (milk and cream) or is it a actual product that is removed from the column between milk and cream?
I was trying to get a technical answer by asking a simplefied question - not the best way to go.
By kanicbird “Part of the reason I asked these questions is that I know that milk is diluted with water,”
Milk as sold in stores in the U.S. is not diluted with water. It is pasteurized for health/safety reasons and usually homogenized for consistency of flavor. Otherwise, it’s as it comes from the cow except that the percent of fat (cream) has been standardized. Usually this is to about 3.5 %, or in the case of low fat products, 2%, 1%, or skimmed. The excess fat that is thus acquired is sold as various cream products.
Diluting milk with water is not legal in the U.S., but “standardizing” the fat percent is OK. The natural fat content of cow’s milk varies due to genetics, diet of the cow, and the stage of lactation she’s in. Most cows’ milk will be from 3.5% to 5.0% fat when it comes from the cow.
Chilled milk that’s not processed, but has gone straight from cow to cooler, doesn’t taste very different from milk purchased in a store, except milk with a higher % of fat will taste more like cream.
Also, the cream in milk naturally separates out; if you ever happen to get non-homogenized milk, you’ll find the cream is floating on top, because it’s lighter than the rest of the milk. So in a way the “default” milk is skim. The fat is added back to whole, 2% and 1% milk, and it’s homogenized so it will stay mixed.
If I’m offered milk in my tea (don’t like coffee) at someone’s house, I expect I will be served whatever form of milk the people who live in that house prefer, be it whole, skim, or something in between. At a cafe I generally assume it will be whole milk unless I ask for something different, partly because all those coffee drinks that are so popular these days use whole milk as a default. Personally I prefer skim or 1%, but then I rarely take milk in my tea, so it doesn’t matter much.
How is it standardized, I thought there was a min level of milkfat required for milk by law? If the cows did more then that level it was diluted with water to that level. Perhaps I’m wrong.
So it seems milk sepperation is done in only 2 parts. The cream and what would be considered skim milk. Then the 2 are mixed back together to get the other ‘grades’.
And depending on the cow, the actual product would be usually somewhere between 1/2 and 1/2 and whole milk?
No, water is not diluted. If less fat is needed, then they take the fat out of the milk (I imagine perhaps centrifugation?), but no water is added to the milk.
Like said before, the milk directly obtained from the cow is 3.5% to 5% fat.
