Part 24

If an alkali, such as limewater, is added, to neutralize the acids of the stomach, the curds do not form, or are re-dissolved, and digestion is aided. One sixth limewater to five-sixths milk is the proper proportion.

Milk Tests. In testing the value of milk, or the value of a cow, butter makers and farmers gauge it by the amount of butter fat in the milk, while the cheese maker tests the milk for the proportion of protein (casein). The amount of butter fat depends upon the feed and water, and upon the breed. The milk from Jersey and Guernsey cows yields about five per cent butter fat. If the total nutrient elements fall below twelve per cent, it is safe to assume that the milk has been watered.

In cheese and butter there is no sugar; it remains in the buttermilk and the whey, both of which the farmer takes home from the factories to fatten his hogs.

Preserving Milk. Many forms of bacteria thrive in milk and it is needless to say that the utmost cleanliness should be observed on the part of the dairyman in the care and cleanliness of his cows, in the cleanliness of the milk receptacles, and in the place in which the milk is allowed to stand over night. Care and cleanliness in the home is quite as important.

If milk could be kept free from bacteria, it would keep sweet almost indefinitely. At the Paris Exposition, milk from several American dairies was kept sweet for two weeks, without any preservative, except cleanliness and a temperature of about forty degrees. The United States Bureau of Animal Industry states that milk may be kept sweet for seven weeks without the use of chemicals.

The best method for the housewife to follow is to keep the milk clean, cool, and away from other foods.

Pasteurized Milk. In pasteurizing milk the aim is to destroy as many of the bacteria as possible without causing any chemical changes or without changing the flavor. One can pasteurize milk at home by placing it in an air tight bottle, immersing the bottle to the neck in hot water, heating the water to one hundred and forty-nine degrees F for a half hour and then quickly cooling the milk to fifty degrees, by immersing the bottle in cold water. The rapid cooling lessens the cooked taste. Many of the best dairies pasteurize the milk in this way before it is marketed.

Sterilized Milk. Milk is sterilized to destroy all bacteria, by boiling it. It must sometimes be boiled one, two or three successive days. Sterilized milk remains sweet longer than pasteurized milk, but more chemical changes are produced and the flavor is changed.

Formerly borax, boric acid, salicylic acid, formalin and salt petre were used to keep the milk sweet, but this adulteration is now forbidden by the pure food laws.

Malted Milk is a dry, soluble food product in powder form, derived from barley malt, wheat flour and cows milk, with the full amount of cream.

The process of the extraction from the cereals is conducted at elevated temperatures so as to allow the active agents (enzymes) of the barley malt to affect the conversion of the vegetable protein and starches. The filtered extract, containing the derivatives of the malt, wheat and the full-cream cows milk, is then evaporated to dryness in vacuo, the temperature being controlled so as to obviate any alteration of the natural constituents of the ingredients and so as to preserve their full physiological values. The strictest precautions are observed to insure the purity of the product. It contains,

Fats 8.75 Proteins 16.35 Dextrine 18.80 Lactose and Maltose 49.15 (Total Soluble Carbohydrates) 67.95 Inorganic Salts 3.86 Moisture 3.06

It is free from germs, the starches and sugars being converted in the process of manufacture in maltose, dextrine and lactose. The fats are in an absorbable condition, and it contains a high percentage of proteins derived from both the milk and the grains, as well as a marked percentage of mineral salts. It is readily soluble in water and is easily digested.

Smierkase, made in the home, is coagulated casein. It contains thirty-three per cent protein, twenty-four per cent fat and five per cent salts. The thickening of the milk, or the coagulation of the casein, is like that produced by lactic acid.

Skimmed Milk, as shown by the table, contains the same amount of protein as fresh milk, but more sugar and more ash, the difference consisting almost entirely of less fat, which has been removed in the cream.

Buttermilk. There is less fat, protein, sugar or ash in buttermilk than in skimmed milk; it is therefore less nourishing but more easily digested. The sugar has partially fermented and the free lactic acid gives the pungent taste. Buttermilk made by lactone tablets and fresh milk is as nourishing and as desirable as that made in the process of butter making, and it has the advantage of being fresh.

Clabbered Milk. The casein in clabbered milk coagulates, and, if kept in a hot place, the coagulation continues until the water, sugar and salt are separated. This is the whey, which is fed to hogs,—the sugar fattens them.

Milk Sugar. Sugar made from milk is now a commercial factor; it is evaporated and compressed into a fine powder. This powder is used by physicians and druggists in mixing powders, pills, tablets, etc.

Milk Junket. The junket tablets, used in milk junket, are milk coagulated by rennet. Flavored milk coagulated by rennet, has not the sour taste of milk coagulated by acid.

Condensed Milk is made by evaporating the water until the milk is reduced to about one fourth its volume. It is then sterilized and hermetically sealed. It is convenient for use, wherever fresh milk cannot be obtained, but the process of evaporation changes its flavor so that few care for it as a drink. It makes a good substitute for cream in coffee, and diluted with three times its volume in water, it is again of the same constituency as before the water was evaporated.

FOOTNOTES:

Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in “Cereal Breakfast Foods.”

BEVERAGES

Tea is made by steeping the leaves of a shrub, which grows in the tropical regions of Asia and adjacent islands. The green tea comes from China and Japan and the darker varieties from India and Ceylon.

It should never be boiled nor allowed to stand longer than a few minutes, as standing in water causes tannin to be extracted from the leaves, and this tannin disturbs digestion. It is the tannin extracted from the bark of trees which toughens animal skins into leather. The best way to make tea is to pour on boiling water and serve almost immediately, or at least within five to ten minutes.

Because of the uncertainty as to the length of time tea may be allowed to steep in hotel kitchens or restaurants, it is a wise custom to have a ball of tea and a pot of hot water served that the guest may make the tea at the table.

Tea, as well as coffee, is diuretic—stimulating the action of the kidneys. It is not a food; it is a stimulant.

Thein, which is the ingredient for which tea is drunk, is chemically identical with caffein in coffee.