The dairy plant takes the milk that comes from the farm, and it can either use it to make fluid milk products or cheese products.
100 lb. milk can make 9.8 lb. of cheddar cheese and 90.2 lb. of whey byproduct! Of the whey, 6.6 lb. is made into spray dried whey powder, which is used in ice cream, candy, soup, sauces, and sausages.
100 lb. milk can also make 93.6 lb. of 1% milk and 6.4 lb. of 40% cream. The 40% cream can be made into 3.2 lb. butter and 3.2 lb. sweet butter cream milk.
Cold, nutritious milk is the primary product sold from
cows' milk. About 40% of the milk produced in the U.S. is sold as fluid
milk in many varieties: whole milk, reduced fat milk, low fat milk and
fat free milk. Chocolate and many other flavors may be added to milk.
Milk is a great source of protein, calcium and vitamins.
Try the new packages of fresh milk available at your quick mart in the
round clear plastic containers. School lunch programs served 4.7 billion
half pints of milk per year. You likely drink 25 gallons of milk a year.
The basic principle involved in making all natural cheese is to coagulate or curdle the milk so that it forms into curds (milky white lumps) and whey (a thin liquid). Today's methods help the curdling process by the addition of a starter (a bacterial culture which produces lactic acid) and rennet (a substance obtained from the stomach linings of young calves containing a coagulating enzyme that speeds the separation of liquids and solids).
All cheeses are made by following the same general sequence:
1. Milk is warmed
2. A starter culture and rennet are added
3. The milk coagulates into a single huge curd
4. The curd is stirred and cut to drain off whey
5. The curd is heated, sometimes pressed, to remove more
whey
6. The curd is molded and shaped into a cheese, salting
taking place before or after this process
7. The cheese is matured under controlled conditions.
The process varies from cheese to cheese resulting in each cheese's characteristic flavor, texture or color. There are hundreds of varieties of cheese, from the low-fat pizza cheese called Mozzarella to the hard cheeses like Cheddar, Colby and Gouda. Whey is the byproduct of cheese production.
It takes about 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese. You likely eat 31 pounds of cheese per year.
Butter is made from the separated cream or butterfat from milk. It takes about 21 pounds of whole milk to make a pound of butter. Butter and nonfat dry milk are two products made at the same time in the creamery. Butter has a butterfat content of 80 % but compares similarly with other spreads, like margarine, in calorie content. Use real butter to enhance the flavor in all your cooking.
Ice cream is made from the frozen mix of milk, sugar, eggs and flavorings. All ice cream must be at least 10% milk fat. Sherberts and other frozen deserts also contain milk. You likely eat almost 30 pounds of ice cream and other frozen dairy products every year. Only half of the ice cream is eaten at home; the rest is enjoyed on the go--as sundaes, ice cream bars and soft serve.
Yogurt, cottage cheese and dry milk are other milk products. Hundreds of other industrial uses make milk a valuable commodity.
