For a long time, I’ve hated skim milk (or, as I often call it, chalkwater). I used to drink 2%, which was the right “consistency” for me. Clarification: I used to drink a lot of 2%. Now, due to cholesterol and fat concerns, I have to switch. I’m at 1% and I can handle it. However, several people have told me about an “ultra-skim” or something like that they’ve seen on the East coast. Basically, it’s skim (no fat) with the consistency and taste of 2%. I also bought a gallon of skim at Sam’s Club here in town once, and would have sworn it was 2% (though I don’t put it past them to have made a labeling error). I’m not a Sam’s member, though, so I can’t go back and get it there every time I need it.
Anyway, my question is twofold:
Why does it seem the ultra-skim is only available on the East coast?
How do they make it have the better consistency and taste?
We have a brand in NY called Farmland Dairies that tastes exactly like 2% or even whole. They just say that they add “milk solids” to make it thicker. Maybe its plutonium, but it tastes good.
They probably do have it on the west coast it’s just called something else…
“LOOK for Skim Deluxe, Skim Supreme, Ultra Skim or “skim” with some other fancy adjective describing it. This milk is considered “skim”, tastes like 2%, and doesn’t have that blue tint that so many people want to avoid. Thickeners are added to this milk to give it a richer taste. Locate it in the regular milk section of your grocery store, give it a shake, and pour over your next bowl of cereal or in your own skinny mocha.
Enjoy… and let us know how you like it!”
From Oregon Health Sciences University Cornell scientists aim to make skim milk taste and look like 2 percent (Press release from '95)
"Barbano and his colleagues are in search of the compounds in 2 percent milk that are responsible for the aroma and flavor, then determine which ingredients or blends mimic 2 percent milk…They found that people use the color of milk to distinguish between the fat gradations. People notice that 2 percent milk is more white than skim milk. In fact, they said skim milk is perceived as having a green or blue tint. In the lab, viscosity and color could be matched, and panelists could distinguish the milks – detecting significant differences in aroma. The study, “The Influence of Fat on Sensory Properties, Viscosity and Color of Lowfat Milk,” appeared in the Journal of Dairy Science (Vol. 78, No. 6, 1995). … Riboflavin gives skim milk that blue/green sheen when the fat is removed. Fat adds whiteness to the milk, which hides the riboflavin tint and renders the liquid opaque. The legal fat limit for skim milk is 0.49 percent, while the legal limit for fat-free milk is 0.2 percent fat content. Less fat means more blue/green color.
The goals: to enhance the aroma, flavor and appearance and to increase consumer acceptance of skim milk. “Our results suggest that a fat substitute for use in a fat-free milk needs to change the appearance attributes of the milk more than its flavor and tactile attributes,” Phillips said. "
“MODIFIED MILKS are identified as skim milk and partially skimmed milk with added milk solids containing not less than 10% milk solids. Skim milk powders and/or evaporated milk are used to provide milk solids.”
“POWDERED WHOLE MILK and POWDERED SKIM MILK are powdered milks with about 3% water content. Most powdered milk is made by the spray-dry process, in which partly evaporated milk is sprayed into a heated chamber where it dries almost instantly and falls as a powder ready for cooling, sifting and packaging. Powdered whole milk must be packaged in a vacuum as an extra precaution to prevent the oxidation of fat. To produce “instantized” skim milk powder that readily dissolves, the skim milk powder is blown into a chamber containing air saturated with steam, where the minute particles aggregate into larger particles containing many tiny air spaces.”
Milk solids…
“Milk is an oil-in-water type of emulsion (87% water), stabilized by complex phospholipids and proteins bound to the surface of the fat globules. It contains proteins in colloidal dispersion, lactose in true solution, minerals, fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, enzymes and other organic compounds. A unique liquid food, Its white appearance is produced by two salts, calcium caseinate and calcium phosphate.”
For more specific information on solids check the section on Composition of Milk in the above link.
As for why they don’t have Modified Skim Milk where you live my best guess is that the local milk companies haven’t introduced it yet. Try health food stores or maybe some independant grocers.
There’s a Prairie Farms facility (don’t know if it’s a processing plant, loading station, or what) not too far from here. Maybe I’ll just go pound on their door and ask where the ultra-skim is. I could threaten to sue if I get a heart attack because they wouldn’t make skim that was drinkable!
I have never seen anything labeled Ultra-Skim. I have seen and have used a milk called Skim-Plus, which is skim milk with the taste and consistency of whole milk. I am also on the East Coast, so I guess that doesn’t help you any David, but maybe you can look for it in a larger supermarket. I doubt it would be anything you’d find in a smaller store.
Rose
Well, we have a Meijer Superstore opening here this week, so I’ll try there. But I’ve checked other fairly big stores around and not found it. Similarly, my father has checked stores in his area and not found it. < shrug >
First, let me say I drink skim milk and have gotten accustomed to the taste. In fact, if I drink regular or even 2%, it tastes too heavy for me.
I have tried mixing skim milk with non-fat dry milk and with evaporated skim milk for a richer taste. Both results were palatable, but there was some subtle taste difference I didn’t like, so I gave up on it. However, since you really hate skim milk, maybe this would be something for you to experiment with.
I went grocery shopping an hour ago at the local (Oneonta NY) Hannaford Grocery and they had a brand called ‘Simply Smart’ made by Hood. The 1% (Skim) was labeled as tasting like Whole Milk. The 0% (No-fat) was labeled as tasting like 2%. Neither was called Ultra- (or any other adjective) Skim.
A word of warning on those enhanced fat-free milks: They taste fine, or at least, the kind I tried (sorry, don’t remember brand) if you make sure to shake them well each time before drinking. If you don’t, then all the solids settle to the bottom, and the last quarter or so of the container tastes like chalk.
