• Milk must do a body good since it’s the first thing any of us drink! But let’s learn more about this dairy delight by which we also get cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream, and most especially, cheese.
• Milk’s history mixes with alcohol on more than one occasion. Louis Pasteur was helping students attempt to ferment beetroot when he discovered the process that would become known as “pasteurizing,” or sterilizing substances.
• But why choose between milk and beer when you can have both as Bilk or in a White Russian, a la The Big Lebowski?
• Milk can also be used as a substitute for alcohol such as in celebration – just ask nay NASCAR fan! Winners of the Indy 500 have a tradition of drinking milk after their victory, a practice that has gone on since 1956.
• Sports Illustrated even ranked milk #1 as the sports world coolest and healthiest prize.
• Got Milk? The slogan started in 1993 and marketers began featuring celebrities in the print campaign. Boasting 90% awareness in the United States, the pithy trademark has been licensed out to dolls and toys and been the brunt of many a well-recognized parody.
• When the price of glass went up, paper milk cartons were in high demand. John Van Wormer, a toy manufacturer, applied for a milk carton patent in 1915, but the familiar tetrahedral shape was developed in the 1940s. The idea was to use the least amount of packaging possible, and lead to the ubiquitous brick-shaped carton of today with the gabled tops.
• I don’t know about you guys, but at my grade school we had a lunch card and … a milk card! Milk is certainly no stranger to the school cafeteria – President Truman signed the National School Lunch into law in 1946, which included a half pint of milk as a required staple.
• In recent years, efforts have been made to replace the original whole milk requirements with 1% or skim. It wasn’t until 1988 that low fat and skim milk exceeded the sales of whole milk.
• Etan Patz was the first missing child featured on a milk carton, a practice which has since mostly been discontinued as such and updated to more tech-saavy modes of display.
• Cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, goat milk yes, but rat milk? Dog milk? And even more extreme examples, no thank you!
• Don’t like milk, or suffering from lactose intolerance? Try (my favorite alternative) soy milk! Made from a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein, it is produced by soaking dry soybeans and grinding them with water. Soy milk contains about the same proportion of protein as cow’s milk and most include a calcium boost.
How do you Flossers take your milk? With a bit of chocolate or with your tea? What about as a substitute for other liquids?
Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.
‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.
Comments (30)
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It boggles my mind that people will drink animal milk, but gross out over human milk.
posted by Amy S. on 6-17-2009 at 11:29 am
Um, Indy 500 isn’t a NASCAR race.
posted by Brucey on 6-17-2009 at 11:48 am
Ice skim milk is the best! Sans actual ice cubes of course.
posted by K on 6-17-2009 at 12:10 pm
Ice cold skim milk is the best! Sans actual ice cubes of course.
posted by K on 6-17-2009 at 12:11 pm
Yuck!
A product intended for the healthy development for bovine babies ought to remain just that. Humans do not need cow’s milk for good health.
posted by BassMan on 6-17-2009 at 12:44 pm
it always baffled me when certain products have ad campaigns. I mean isn’t milk one of those things that you eather want and buy or don’t want? The same goes for the generic commercials from the beef farmers or pork purveyors. I don’t think that it’s going to convince any vegetarians to convert.
posted by jenny on 6-17-2009 at 1:12 pm
I’ve loved my milk since I was a little girl and find a nice cold glass very comforting.
Up in the Great White North we can buy our milk in plastic bags (a large bag that holds three smaller 1L bags), but from what I’ve heard you don’t have that down in the states…?
posted by Jenny S on 6-17-2009 at 1:19 pm
I can’t believe the classic combination of milk and cookies hasn’t been mentioned. It’s almost impossible (if not illegal — ha!) to eat cookies, warm from the oven, without a glass of ice-cold milk. Yummmmm….!
posted by Rachel on 6-17-2009 at 1:28 pm
I just found out I was lactose intolerant yesterday! I tried soy milk in a cup of tea but it’s not the same =(
posted by Nikki on 6-17-2009 at 1:32 pm
Aw, take heart, Nikki! I’m lactose intolerant, and I now love soy milk in my coffee. You’ll get used to it, plus if you can’t there are enzyme pills you can take – but I reserve those for unstoppable cheese cravings.
posted by Adrienne on 6-17-2009 at 1:44 pm
Good timing on this one. June is dairy month! Yes, I’m originally from Wisconsin.
posted by Brooke on 6-17-2009 at 1:58 pm
Nope, Jenny S, just paper and plastic cartons down here. I never heard of milk in bags until I moved out of the south (and even then I saw it only once or twice).
As for my milk tastes, I adore milk and cheese, but have recently realized I’m lactose intolerant (which I guess most of the adult population is, to some extent). I can’t stand soy milk in my cereal, so I switched over to goat milk. Not quite as tasty as the bovine variety, but a ton better than soy! Now if only I could find more than chevre in the goat cheese section . . .
posted by nutmeag on 6-17-2009 at 1:59 pm
Jenny S- I know in Wisconsin you used to be able to buy milk in bags — but the only place I was aware of that sold it that way was a specific type of gas station. You got a pitcher with your bag of milk, and to use it you put the bag into the pitcher, snipped the corner of the bag and then poured. The pitcher had a slit cut into the front of it, and you jammed the cut end of the bag into that to “close” the bag.
posted by Brooke on 6-17-2009 at 2:13 pm
It is actually a fallacy that milk is a good source of calcium. Our bodies absorb very little calcium from animal milk. Animal and human milk is designed for one thing – to provide fats for babies during the most important and biggest growing times in their lives, when they need the extra energy.
posted by Heyoka on 6-17-2009 at 2:36 pm
When visiting my cousins in eastern PA, I marvelled at their bags o’ milk (served in the same type of pitcher Brooke describes). I thought I was through the looking glass.
Sorry BassMan, but you’re in the minority here. Milk is good food!
posted by TBV on 6-17-2009 at 2:43 pm
Nikki, have you tried almond milk or rice milk? You may prefer them to soy. I’m very fond of vanilla almond milk, myself.
posted by loripop on 6-17-2009 at 2:49 pm
there is also lactose-free milk. i buy that instead of soy milk due to lactose intolerance. it tastes almost just like regular.
posted by m on 6-17-2009 at 3:19 pm
If I don’t have a glass of milk with my breakfast, I usually end up feeling hungry an hour or two later!
Also, has anybody besides myself tried almond milk? Surprisingly, I thought it wasn’t bad.
posted by Steve on 6-17-2009 at 4:43 pm
Just one point of contention – there’s no beer in a White Russian. At least not according to my recipe (or Wikipedia’s). I definitely don’t remember The Dude’s Caucasians containing any. Only vodka, Kahlua, and half & half (or milk in a pinch).
posted by Bert on 6-17-2009 at 4:54 pm
What do you mean, milk is the first thing any of us drink? You mean breast milk? Which is not dairy, and we don’t make butter or cheese out of it. Or are you assuming everyone starts life drinking cow’s milk-based formula? These are very different things. Sloppy opening paragraph.
posted by Liz on 6-17-2009 at 6:38 pm
I go through at least a half gallon of milk a week. It’s for coffee, it’s for putting on my cereal. The odd glass of chocolate milk, or the odd protein shake also, sometimes.
Weirdly, I drink more milk when it’s skim- it’s kinda like water at that point, I guess.
posted by Elizabeth W. on 6-17-2009 at 11:00 pm
I don’t actually drink milk, but I’ve always wondered how they make the different types of milk (e.g. lactose free, skim, 1%, etc.). Is it just different levels of separation?
posted by Katie O on 6-18-2009 at 12:17 am
My grandfather had a dairy farm in the 60′s and I would work on it during the summers. Our milk was direct from the cow, chilled it its serving container in the milk house by ice cold spring water. Best ever and no I did not get sick because it wasn’t processed.
posted by Owen on 6-18-2009 at 1:32 am
I am shocked to read people saying milk is not good for you. If you dont believe you need calcium, then you have obviously never heard of osteoporosis or tetany. Besides the health benefits, there is nothing better than a nice bowl of cereal.
posted by Heather on 6-18-2009 at 6:42 am
a glass of milk with a handful of nacho cheese doritos. nothing better.
posted by Nick on 6-18-2009 at 10:27 am
Whole milk rocks! It’s my favorite. I drink milk more than anything else, except water. I’ve been like that since I was a child.
I also love soy milk! And ice cream, and cheese.. and just about anything dairy. :)
posted by Heather on 6-18-2009 at 10:56 am
…The Korova Milk Bar sold milkplus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom which is what we were drinking…
posted by ALEX on 6-19-2009 at 12:57 am
Try hazelnut “milk” if you can find it. It’s my favorite milk substitute, perfect in coffee or tea and cereal. The only downside is that it is too rich to drink more than a small glass at a time.
posted by cbanana on 6-19-2009 at 1:51 am
My family of 5 goes through one to two gallons of milk a day. I alone drink a quart or two every day. I just couldn’t go a meal without my milk–usually chocolate, always skim. I wonder if I’m the only one here who uses powdered milk. Sometimes I hear people say they can’t stand the stuff, but it tastes exactly like skim milk bought in the gallons, so I think the people who really have a problem with it are the ones who are used to drinking milk with a higher fat content.
posted by Michigan Mom on 6-19-2009 at 8:37 pm
We have camel milk being sold in groceries here in my part of the world (Dubai). I find it weird because I have seen a camel, and would definitely not think that milk would come out of that thing. (sorry).
havent tried it, but if its commercially sold, i might as well give it a try.
posted by Valerie on 6-23-2009 at 5:48 am