Cows have been found to give more milk of a good quality
for a given amount of feed and care than any other milk-giving
animal. For this reason, wherever the climate is suitable, cow's
milk is used almost exclusively. In some parts of the world
other kinds of milk are used — goat 's milk in the hilly districts of
Europe, llama's milk in South America, the milk of the buffalo
in India, mare 's milk in Russia and camel 's milk on the deserts,
while in the Arctic regions they usually use the milk of the rein-
deer.
Two-thirds of all the milk produced in the United States is
used for butter and cheese. In the year 1903 there was enough
milk and cream sold in the United States to have furnished every
man, woman and child with thirty gallons. It has been estimated
that milk and cream together furnish sixteen per cent of the
total food of the average American family. Every child should
take in some form a quart of milk a day throughout the period of
growth.
MILK 135
Composition.
As milk is the sole food of the young of mammals for a
length of time varying from a few weeks to several months, milk,
like the egg, must contain all the food elements necessary to
sustain life. All milk is made up of protein, fat, sugar, water
and mineral matter but there is quite a difference in the propor-
tion of each ingredient found in the milk from different animals.
Even the milk of the same animal will differ greatly at different
times.
Average composition of cow's milk:
Water 87.0%
Protein (casein and albumin) 3.3%
Fat 4.0%
Carbohydrates (milk sugar) 5.0%
Mineral matter .7%
While milk is a perfect food for the young animal for which
it was intended, the various ingredients are not in the right
proportion to form the only food of an adult. There is not
enough carbohydrate to furnish the required amount of energy
and there is so much water that it would be far too bulky a
food for a grown person. Taken with carbohydrate foods, how-
ever, it forms a valuable addition to the diet.
The fat of milk is in the form of little globules floating in
the milk. These fat globules being lighter than the rest of the
milk, rise to the top, forming the yellowish layer known as
cream. There is always some milk mixed with the cream and
by the process of churning the fat globules are made to separate
from the milk and stick together in the form of lumps of butter.
Skim milk (milk from which the cream has been removed)
deserves a more important place in the daily dietary than is
136 FOOD AND COOKERY
usually given it. It contains all the constituents of the milk
except the fat and a small per cent of the protein and can usually
be substituted for whole milk in cooking. In the cities we
generally pay almost as much for cream as we should have ^o
pay for the whole milk from which the cream was taken. It
would therefore be economy to buy the whole milk, remove the
cream and have the skim milk left to use about the cooking.
Casein and albumin are the two kinds of protein found in
milk. Casein is the more abundant and forms the greater part
of the curd of milk used in making cheeses of all kinds. The
albumin is more soluble and will be found in the watery portion
of the milk after the curd has been separated from it. The
casein can be made to separate from the milk by adding an acid
as in the case of the natural souring of the milk or by the use
of rennet, a digestive fluid taken from the lining of the calf's
stomach.
The whey, after it has been separated from the curd contains
the water, sugar, albumin, most of the mineral matter and a
little of the fat. While the per cent of food material contained
in the whey is small, it is sometimes used for invalids and
persons of weak digestion. If the white of an egg be dissolved
in it and fruit juice added for flavoring it makes a nutritious
and palatable food that can sometimes be taken when whole
milk could not be digested.
Page 27
Presented as published in 1915. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Cows have been found to give more milk of a good quality for a given amount of feed and care than any other milk-giving animal. For this reason, wherever the climate is suitable, cow's milk is used almost exclusively. In some parts of the world other kinds of milk are used — goat's milk in the hilly districts of Europe, llama's milk in South America, the milk of the buffalo in India, mare's milk in Russia and camel's milk on the deserts, while in the Arctic regions they usually use the milk of the reindeer.
Two-thirds of all the milk produced in the United States is used for butter and cheese. In the year 1903 there was enough milk and cream sold in the United States to have furnished every man, woman and child with thirty gallons. It has been estimated that milk and cream together furnish sixteen per cent of the total food of the average American family. Every child should take in some form a quart of milk a day throughout the period of growth.
Composition.
As milk is the sole food of the young of mammals for a length of time varying from a few weeks to several months, milk, like the egg, must contain all the food elements necessary to sustain life. All milk is made up of protein, fat, sugar, water and mineral matter but there is quite a difference in the proportion of each ingredient found in the milk from different animals. Even the milk of the same animal will differ greatly at different times.
Average composition of cow's milk:
Water 87.0%
Protein (casein and albumin) 3.3% Fat 4.0%
Carbohydrates (milk sugar) 5.0% Mineral matter .7%
While milk is a perfect food for the young animal for which it was intended, the various ingredients are not in the right proportion to form the only food of an adult. There is not enough carbohydrate to furnish the required amount of energy and there is so much water that it would be far too bulky a food for a grown person. Taken with carbohydrate foods, however, it forms a valuable addition to the diet.
The fat of milk is in the form of little globules floating in the milk. These fat globules being lighter than the rest of the milk, rise to the top, forming the yellowish layer known as cream. There is always some milk mixed with the cream and by the process of churning the fat globules are made to separate from the milk and stick together in the form of lumps of butter.
Skim milk (milk from which the cream has been removed) deserves a more important place in the daily dietary than is
usually given it. It contains all the constituents of the milk except the fat and a small per cent of the protein and can usually be substituted for whole milk in cooking. In the cities we generally pay almost as much for cream as we should have to pay for the whole milk from which the cream was taken. It would therefore be economy to buy the whole milk, remove the cream and have the skim milk left to use about the cooking.
Casein and albumin are the two kinds of protein found in milk. Casein is the more abundant and forms the greater part of the curd of milk used in making cheeses of all kinds. The albumin is more soluble and will be found in the watery portion of the milk after the curd has been separated from it. The casein can be made to separate from the milk by adding an acid as in the case of the natural souring of the milk or by the use of rennet, a digestive fluid taken from the lining of the calf's stomach.
The whey, after it has been separated from the curd contains the water, sugar, albumin, most of the mineral matter and a little of the fat. While the per cent of food material contained in the whey is small, it is sometimes used for invalids and persons of weak digestion. If the white of an egg be dissolved in it and fruit juice added for flavoring it makes a nutritious and palatable food that can sometimes be taken when whole milk could not be digested.