There are many other types of milk products available in modern times.
Some rnilk products were mentioned above. They and the Sanskrit names of a few of them are as follows: cream (santanika), butter [navanila], skimmed milk, butter milk [takra), curd or curdled milk [dadhi), whey (mastu), cheese, ghee (ghrita) and milk sugar containing the lactose sugar alone.
Pasteurised milk is the milk sterilised (by heating not upto boiling point and followed by rapid chilling) and made bacteria free; this is absolutely safe and conserves the vitamins which get destroyed by full boiling. Condensed milk is fresh milk which is sweetened by adding 15 to 17 per cent of cane sugar alongwith an alkali; but this milk is condensed or concentrated to half by evaporating it in vacuum till it becomes dry and all the useless water has gone off in the form of steam.
Sugar is added here more as a preservative rather than adding to taste and so as to overcome the need for sterilisation. When it becomes reliquified it becomes equal to whole milk plus 15 to 17 per cent of cane sugar that has been added; but the vitamin content is totally destroyed in the way, the protein content is also minimal. As this form of milk contains a high percentage of carbohydrates coupled with a minimal protein content, this is not at all suitable for healthy and normal infants. Premature babies and those babies who are underweight thrive well with this type of milk. Lactose is the carbohydrate content alone of the milk.
The whole milk can be reduced to a form of a fine powder by drying the watery portion of it fully; this is known as powdered milk or milk powder or desiccated milk or lactogen milk. This drying is done so instantaneously and carefully that the vital properties and the solid constituents of the milk are both retained absolutely intact though physically the liquid milk becomes just a fine powder. This is inturn easily soluble in water and when dissolved in a proportion of 1 to 7 or 8 parts in water it regains all the nutritional capabilities of fresh whole milk excepting however the two vitamins of A and B that get destroyed during its very manufacturing.
Evaporated milk is fresh cow’s milk that has been reduced to half of its volume by evaporation in vaccum. It is a fluid in its consistency unlike the powdered milk but has a characteristic cooked taste. It yields but small amount of curds and on dilution with an equal amount of water can form a suitable substitute for fresh milk. But the vitamin content is destroyed here also by the very processes of its manufacture.
Lactic acid milk is the fresh milk that is boiled in a double boiler to sterilise it and break it into small curds. It is then allowed to cool. When it is ice cold, 0.4 per cent of lactic acid is added to it drop by drop, slowly and stirring the liquid all the way and throughout. As a result the casein undergoes changes due to the addition of the acid and the curd itself becomes very finely divided. Lactic acid milk may be prepared by bacterial fermentation.
The action of these organisms turns the milk sour and when a certain degree of acidity is reached thefurther growth of the bacteria is inhibited stopping the fermentation any further. The duration needed for the whole process is 8 to 12 hours depending upon the temperature. In this type of milk product, there is enough lactic acid and the curds obtained are small, friable and easily digestible; this is very suitable as an infant food. But the two points of objection against its popular use are its sour taste and also the acid smell.
Skimmed lactic acid milk is made by using skimmed milk in preparing the above type instead of fresh whole milk.
Protein Milk is protein fortifed milk. This is not useful in feeding healthy and normal infants. But this is useful in feeding infants who are suffering from diarrhoea. Its composition, it is 89% of water, 3.75% protein and 6.65% of salts.
Citrated milk is prepared by adding 2-3 grains of sodium citras to every ounce of the milk. This is also used in feeding infants. Because of this addition, casein in the milk is broken into small and easily friable curds that can be digested by the body with ease. The composition here is 87.9% water, 28% fat. 24% proteins, 1.0% digested proteins, 3.9% lactose, 1.2% carbohydrates and 0.8% salts.
Peptanised or predigested milk is prepared by heating milk with water in a proportion of two to one to a temperature of 140° fahenheit and adding to it gelly cooled, peptonising powder or sodium carbonate 10 grains and pancreatic liquour of 2 drachms in a pint and then boiling the product.
Plasmon of milk is the pure soluble milk in which casein has been separated and the albumin has been left as such and unaltered. This becomes a white powder containing 92% of proteids. This is odourless, tasteless and soluble in water as well as soup. When mixed with water it wells up to form a gelatinous mass which however disolves if more water is added. This contains albumen, phosphates of ammonium sodium and potassium and also a small amount of sodium bicarbonate or the common salt.
Cheese is more nutritious than meat and more beneficial. It is a reservoir of Vitamins A, B and D and calcium so r.eeded for bones and teeth. It is prepared by coagulating milk by means of rennet (or calf s stomach extract) or any acid or with yeast, and submitting it to pressure after separation. Like albumen it is not Coagulated by heat but is precifitated by acids. This contains mostly albuminoids (viz casein), fat. salts, other non nitrogenous matter and water. It is extremely rich in the vitamins and most of the minerals in the original milk also enter in the cheese. It is thus rich on a double account viz. in the percentage of its vitamin contents and also the number of the milk salts within. Another advantage is that this cheese, like khova which is a boiled and thus condensed and usually sweetened milk, forms the base material for many further preparations.
In India this is equivalent to paneer. Channa is generally the home made separation of the coagulated milk leaving the watery form of the milk as whey or mastu. Paneer can be kept unspoiled quite for sometime and is utilised very abundantly specially in north Indian kitchen in preparing many savoury dishes such as gravy, stuffings and curries. Channa forms the base material for many of the famous Bengal sweets such as rasgulla and sandesh Khova forms similarly a base material for numerous sweet preparations such as doodh phedes, burjies, kunda and so on. Rabhri of Rajasthan and Gujarat is also a type of khova in which the milk is made to condense in the form of a number of shreds instead of a single whole mass. This is usually chilled, sweetened, seasoned and served – a very favourite local dish specially among the rhabharis or cow herds.
Eucasein is a casein ammonium compound. This is a milk casein in a soluble form and easily digestible. This is prepared solely from the pure cow’s milk. It is a soluble milk powder containing about 95 per cent of pure absorbable albumen. This has no odour or taste. But this is a highly nutritive form of milk product.
Butter is a very common and in fact the principal milk product of most countries including India. It is just the fatty matter of milk separated by churning out well boiled and cooled milk which then settles into the cream layer above and the watery portion below in which also considerable amount of fat globules remain suspended: the process of full churning will remove out this portion of fat as well.
Butter is called makhan, muska in Hindi, Gujarati; and Persian, lonee in Marathi; benney in Kannada and vennai in Tamil and Malayalam and constitutes a very common form of milk product all over India. The fats contained in butter are many: olein 30%, palmetin and stearin 60 per cent; there also occur 2% of gfycerides of many acids such as butyric (which is characteristic of butter), carponic, caprylic and caprinic.
Cow’s butter is probably the most nourishing food. It cleanses, builds and expels harmful germs. It is a rich calcium food and contains vitamins A and D. Its caloric i.e. energy value is 240 in an ounce.
Skimmed milk is the milk from which cream is separated. As a result, its casein and the fat content are much less here in comparison with fresh milk. It is therefore more easily digestible. This is devoid of fat and fat soluble vitamins but is a good source of milk proteins (35 per cent) and calcium.
Buttermilk is the skimmed lactic acid milk and is actually a residue of casein, serum (i.e. the milk water) and a trace of butter or the fat left remaining after the butter is churned out. It is called buttermilk as it is a direct bye product obtained in the preparation of butter from milk.
When the cream in the milk is allowed to sour, the fat molecules become accumulated into one mass after being churned; this constitutes butter and the rest forms the butter milk. This is free from fat and is easily digestible. There are very many uses of butter milk which will be discussed later on separately.
Cream is the fat molecules that accumulate as a layer at the top when the boiled milk is allowed to stand undisturbed. This is the part of milk which is most nutritive. But this is hard to get digested. It is called qutmaq in Persian; malai in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati; and kene in Kannada; yed in Tamil. It sharpens vision. Its energy value is 90 calories for an ounce. It is rich in Vitamins A and B. As it is a fattening food those who desire to slim their body should avoid it; instead they can replace it with curd or still better, with buttermilk.
Ghee or clarified butter is obtained by boiling fresh butter and removing the impurities that settle down at the base of the vessel. It is in the form of ghee that Ayurveda uses milk in great many preparations, temporary as well as proprietary, or, yogas.
Curdled milk or curd is prepared by adding some acid, lime or a little amount of curds as a fermenting agent to milk that is previously boiled and generally when it is still rather warm slightly and not when it is fully cooled down. During an interval of about twelve hours the whole amount of the milk thus acted upon turns into a more or less thick, somewhat sour and jelly like mass called the curds. This also contains a large amount of nutritive substances. It is known as dadhi in Sanskrit, dahi in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Konkani; mosaru in Kannada and tair in Tamil. There are many useful applications of dahi This is jagrat in Persian and is somewhat similar to yoghurt, a Turkish term which however is actually a fermented liquour made from milk and is quite common in Western Countries and cures sleeplessness and is a prescription for longevity.
Whey is the watery portion of milk after its fat is separated. This term usually refers to the watery portion in the milk that is purposely broken by adding lime and from which channa is taken out. But it is often used as being the same as buttermilk which is strictly speaking not correct. When whey is evaporated, it yields sugar of milk, one or two nitrogenous elements, lactic acid and salts. Whey is prepared by adding a little of lime of juice to 1-1/2 pints of milk heated to 104°F, carefully but thoroughly breaking up the clots which form. Or, in otherwords, the curd is allowed to settle and this is then filtered or strained through a piece of muslin cloth. The supernatant fluid or the filtrate is called whey. It may often be very sour in taste, when this can be overcome by adding water or sugar or both.
Lactose of milk is sugar obtained from this whey. This is a crystalline, greyish white, odourless and faintly sweet hardened mass. This is rather gritty when chewed.