[Sca-cooks] I Didn't Know...

[Johnna Holloway]

Actually I knew this, but then I was given my very own Jersey calf to raise
when I was 2 and 1/2. My parents and grandparents both milked. I grew
up going out to the barn with them to milk. I don't know that we have 
the original
milk separator or not, although I suspect it's someplace in the family.
It also makes a difference on the type of cow being milked too. Jerseys 
are better for
cream than Frisians or Holsteins.
I know that the milk that came to the flat when we lived in Cambridge always
had a layer of cream on the top. It came in glass milk bottles in what 
must have
been pints. I've never been able to buy milk like that in the states.
On the other hand, we have to cook with the groceries at hand or raise 
our own.
Somehow, I don't see you with a cow and milking twice a day, Countess Alys?

Johnnae


Elise Fleming wrote:
> Greetings!  I was just reading the tudorcook blog page and saw this:
>
>   
>> ......not because of anything he did, more the fact that milk today is 
>> separated from cream in a different manner to the Tudors. Today, 
>> our milk and cream are separated centrifugally, in the past good old 
>> gravity did the job....so what you say...well, our milk today has less 
>> fat in it than in the past and our cream more fat. This meant that when 
>> Robin came to curdle the milk to make a possett..make a styf poshotte 
>> of Ale; þan hang þe croddys þer-of in a pynne all he got was a few 
>> measly lumps floating in a lot of milk/whey.......my fault really as I should have ordered cream to mix with the milk to up the fat levels......
>>     
>
> I never knew about a difference in separation - only that we homogenize
> most of our milk today. I wonder what else is different today that would
> make a big difference in the results of our cookery...
>   
>