Michael Schmidt, raw-milk renegade

Thanks for raising this issue, cav. I used to buy raw-milk cheddar here in Seattle, but that seems to have gone away. I also used to buy unpasteurized apple cider, but ditto.

Seems to me that we should have such choices as consumers, n'est-ce pas?

I think so D'artagnan...

You can get a great variety of such ('even' raw milk cheese) here in Germany, not only at special organic supermarkets but even in small 'normal' ones. (Just counted them in my supermarket today: 14 raw milk cheeses plus more than a dozen camenberts, bries etc)

Only a very small handful of raw-milk cheeses are availible here in the average supermarket. However, there is always a good selection in the specialty cheese shops.

How about bovine tuberculosis and mastitis?

Seems like a 'cow' problem, not a 'me' problem...

When you drink the cow's contaminated milk, her problem then becomes your problem.

Hasn't happened yet, so I don't worry about it. The biggest cases of widespread milk poisoning have been from commercial pasteurized milk, not small production raw milk, just to put the persecution from the dairy board in perspective. Here is an interesting quote from someone in support of pasteurization:

"Many bacteria are not killed by pasteurization. Rod-shaped
bacteria form a "spore" at the first sign of heat ("spore"
is the Greek word for "seed"). When the milk cools, the
spore re-emerges into its original form."

"Since 1973, 394 cases of salmonella have been
reported in Los Angeles County. Of these, 101 (25.6%)
were consumers of raw milk. Molecular fingerprinting
identified the strain of bacteria in ill persons as
the same as that found in raw milk samples."

Compare those figures and facts to the info in this article:

http://www.townsendletter.com/Oct_2002/milk1002.htm

Actually, I do not drink milk at all, but I like my raw-milk cheese.

I love pasteurized whole milk!!

"A processing plant incorrectly pasteurized one day’s supply of milk,
which resulted in four deaths and 150,000 salmonella poisonings"

You couldn't possibly have had enough time to read the article...

I've switched to soy milk because I so dislike commercial pasteurized milk. Am a raw milk fan, too, but I don't see it around... And raw-milk cheese. What kind do you get, Cav?

Yes, you can get undulant fever from infected cows but clean dairies don't have the problem. My understanding is that most dairies don't want to sell raw milk these days because of the liability.

More homogenized milk for NH. More raw milk and raw milk cheese for the rest of us with taste buds.

Mrs. SealPoet posted very eloquently on the unpasteurized milk they get, at another forum I post at. I wish I could steal her words, but bottom line, the taste, texture and flavour of raw milk can't be beat. I can sometimes find nice raw milk cheese at Cheese Magic. Sometimes, and if I know who to smile at. I suspect there's a secret handshake as well - I always feel like I'm in some funny Masterpiece Theatre piece about cheese smugglers when I'm at Cheese Magic.

This thread led to some 'investigations' by me:

my supermarket actually stores 235 different cheeses, of which are (altogether) 34 raw milk cheeses.
However, a normal wholesale dealer has more than 500 raw milk cheeses in stock.
The best raw milk - that with the "secret handshake" can be bought here on the market, local stuff from an organic farmer.

i always said i'd never go back to germany again, but you're making some fine selling points there, walter. especially if we can figure out a couple of secret handshakes! nudge nudge :wink: :wink:

Tartarin, there are a few varieties, no soft cheeses though, generally. I like raw milk cheddar, goat and blue cheeses, and some of the washed-rind cheeses as well.

No soft cheeses? You don't get camembert, brie or munster cheese, just to name some French?

Oh sure we have lots of soft cheeses, but it is rare to find raw milk versions of them.