Concerning Milk - What you Need to Know

There is much confusion in most people's minds regarding the various kinds of canned milk found on the market. Really there are two, and only two, kinds of concentrated liquid milk put up in tin cans, although there are several manufacturers' brands. Both contain considerably less water than is found in ordinary fresh cow's milk; both are, therefore, condensed milks.

Both are made by evaporating part of the water from cow's milk; both are, consequently, evaporated milks. The main difference between them is that the one contains a large amount of added sugar, while the other does not. Sweetened condensed milk, or what is commonly called condensed milk, is very thick or viscous, and is yellowish color; it contains ordinary granulated sugar. Unsweetened condensed milk, which is ordinarily designated as evaporated milk, is about the consistency of light cream, and is darker in color than condensed milk ; it contains no added substance.

Condensed milk is kept from spoiling by the sugar in it, just as fruit preserves and molasses remain good almost indefinitely. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, after being sealed into the can perfectly tight, is heated to a very high temperature to kill the bacteria. This process can be compared to the ordinary method of canning fruit. It is well known that when canned fruit is once opened and exposed to the air it will spoil unless kept on ice ; the same is true of evaporated milk. But the sweetened variety after opening keeps just as well as before; there is no more necessity for keeping it cold than for keeping honey and molasses cold in order to prevent spoilage. Of course, if left undisturbed for weeks a little mold may grow on the surface, but the main body of the milk is unharmed and unchanged.

During the process of manufacture of both condensed and evaporated milk, the raw cow's milk is subjected to high temperatures. There has always been a diversity of opinion as to whether heated milk is as nutritious as that which has not been heated. The arguments seem to center around these questions: (1) Are the vitamins destroyed? (2) Is the milk rendered less digestible? (3) Are there not some peculiar living substances in milk which are beneficial to our health, but which are killed on exposure to heat? With regard to these points there should be found some difference between evaporated and condensed milk because the former is heated much longer and to a higher temperature than the latter.

Of the principal vitamins so far discovered, the scurvy-preventing vitamin is usually present in milk in relatively small amounts and it is most easily destroyed by heat. Evaporated milk can be expected to contain none of the anti-scurvy substance ; while one or two investigators have found a little of this vitamin in sweetened condensed milk, it cannot be considered an important factor.

Although a great deal depends upon the care taken by the manufacturer in preparing his product, both kinds of canned milk can be expected to contain practically as much of the other vitamins as raw milk.

With regard to digestibility a few investigators claim that raw milk is better, but the large majority vote in favor of milk that has been heated. Raw cow's milk forms a tough clot in the stomach, while heated milk becomes finely divided and on this account is more easily handled by that organ. The protein of heated milk has been found to be acted on more easily by the digestive enzymes. Besides this, in the process of manufacturing condensed and evaporated milk the fat is rendered very finely divided which makes it more digestible also. All this is more important in considering the feeding of infants and invalids than healthy adults. To the latter, raw milk is just as digestible as cooked milk. The important point just now is that there is nothing peculiar about the process of manufacturing canned milk that renders it any less easily handled by the digestive system than it was originally.

However, there is one point of warning in this connection. Any white sediment which is found in the bottom of a can should be carefully stirred in with the rest of the milk. It has been found that the process of heating may render some of the important mineral salts insoluble and cause them to settle out. Merely mixing this material with the rest of the contents prevents any loss.

Many people have thought that there are some mysterious living substances in cow's milk beneficial to digestion and the health of man. They have thought that by heating the milk these things are destroyed and we are thus deprived of their good effect. But this has proved to be only supposition ; cow's milk does not contain more than the slightest trace of any digestive enzyme, nor is there any specific substance that can be destroyed with heat, such as an immune body, which might assist the bodies of children or grown-ups to resist disease.

In answering the three questions above propounded, condensed and evaporated milks are found to compare quite favorably with natural cow's milk in nutritive value.

The one big objection to the canned milks, of course, is the taste. A glass of milk made by mixing evaporated milk and water, half and half, may be just as nutritious as raw milk in most respects, but it doesn't suit the palate. The "cooked milk" taste may come out sometimes in puddings and soups. But it is not difficult to get into the habit of using milk products from tins. Immediately after the SpanishAmerican War the condensed milk business grew more than at any previous time. The soldiers had gotten used to it, and introduced it to their families when they got home.

There are a great many ways that condensed and evaporated milk can be used in food preparation wherein the taste does not usually prove objectionable : custards, puddings, sauces, cream soups, ice cream, cakes, for adding to coffee and cereals and for making cocoa. Many people like sweetened condensed milk on pancakes instead of syrup.

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