Milk

“ One would think it was generally known that milk is a peculiarly nutritive fluid, adapted for the fast-growing and fattening young mammal—admirable for such, for our small children, also serviceable to those whose muscular exertion is great, and, when it agrees with the stomach, to those who can not take meat. For us who have long ago achieved our full growth, and can thrive on solid fare, it is altogether superfluous and mostly mischievous as a drink.—Nineteenth Century. ”

“ Cow’s milk is a valuable, indeed, an indispensable article of diet for children; it is most nourishing, wholesome, and digestible. The finest and the healthiest children are those who, for the first four or five years of their lives, are fed principally upon it. Milk ought then to be their staple food.
122No young child, as a rule, can live, or, if he live, can be healthy, unless milk is the staple article of his diet. There is no substitute for milk. To prove the fattening and strengthening qualities of milk, look only at a young calf who lives on milk, and on milk alone! ”

“ If you have no cellar that can be kept warm and free from the smell of vegetables, set your milk on a shelf, in a warm closet, where, of course, you will keep no vegetables or meats, as nothing is so easily impregnated with odors of all kinds as milk. Cover the pans or bowls with a fine net, to exclude dust or motes of any kind.
Thirty-six hours is as long as milk should remain unskimmed, summer or winter. Every hour longer, even though the milk may taste sweet, is insuring bitter butter. As you skim off the cream, stir it well each time. ”

“ Feed him entirely on cow’s milk—the milk of one healthy cow; let the milk be unboiled, and be fresh from the cow. Give it in small quantities at a time, and frequently, so that it may be retained on the stomach. If a tablespoonful of the milk make him sick, give him a dessertspoonful; if a dessertspoonful cause sickness, let him only have a teaspoonful at a time, and let it be repeated every quarter of an hour. But remember, in such a case the breast-milk—the breast milk alone—is incomparably superior to any other milk or to any other food whatever. ”

“ As milk is usually taken into the body in liquid form, the common tendency is to regard it as a beverage, rather than as an important source of nourishing food material. However, a knowledge of its composition, as well as the fact that milk becomes a solid food in the stomach and must then be dissolved in the process of digestion, will serve to show that milk contains solids. That it possesses all the elements required to sustain life and promote health is proved by the fact that a child may live for months on milk alone and during this time increase in weight. ”

“ General Observations on Milk, Butter, Cheese, and Eggs, their Nutritious Properties, and Distinguishing Features, etc.
MILK.
Milk is obtained only from the Mammalia, and is intended by nature for the nourishment of their young. All young animals live upon it for the first months of their existence, and it is the only food that, taken alone, can support adult life. The fat rises in the form of cream; curd is the nitrogenous matter; and the whey contains sugar and milk lactose with saline or mineral matter. ”

“ As the milk teeth come through, other farinaceous matter may be gradually blended with the milk, and there is nothing better than to begin at about eight months with a teaspoonful of baked flour, well boiled in a pint of milk and water, or in the water, to be afterwards cooled with milk. Oftentimes a little salt, as well as sugar, will materially help its digestion. The child will do well on that food—the quantity being duly increased—until it has cut almost all its milk teeth, when it may eat bread and butter, rice, and egg puddings, and occasionally eat a boiled egg once a day. ”

“ But it is even more than this: milk may be regarded as a model food, and as a complete food. It is a model food because it is nature’s own food, designed for the sustenance of the young of animals, and, as such, it contains and furnishes all the nutritive properties in due proportion required by a growing animal. ”

“ Such a food is milk; and, if the human supply is insufficient, we obtain in its place that of the cow, chiefly; and during the first year of life milk constitutes the best form of food. After that time other kinds of nourishment, mostly well-cooked wheaten flour in various shapes, begin to be added to the milk which long continues to be a staple source of nourishment to the young animal. ”

“ At each feeding, add the prescribed amount of water to the milk, shake and heat in a water bath. Add a tablespoonful of lime water or barley water. If the milk cannot be obtained fresh twice per day, it is safer to scald the milk which is used during the night.
Milk is a food, not a drink; it should never be taken in addition to, or at the end of a heavy meal. Many people object to boiled milk on account of a theory that it tends to constipate. Do not dwell on theories; find out for yourself. Potatoes, toast and many other cooked foods are constipating also. ”

“ Although milk is used extensively in its natural liquid form, considerable use is also made of the numerous products of milk, chief among which are cream, skim milk, buttermilk, sour milk, whey, butter, and cheese. In fact, all of these occupy such an important place in the dietary of the majority of homes that it is well for every housewife to understand their value. ”

“ Milk contains all of these groups of nutrients. The protein is represented in milk by the casein and albumin, the fats by the butter-fat, the carbohydrates by milk-sugar, and the mineral matters by the milk-ash. Human milk contains them in a perfect proportion for infants, and for all purposes of nutrition cow’s milk may be used to make up a “balanced ration,” if not alone, then in connection with other food. ”

“ If all the Mamas who don't buy City Dairy Milk would come and see how much care we take in clarifying, pasteurizing, and putting the Milk in "bottles air tight" and then keeping it cold until delivered, we are sure they would want to give their little girls and boys City Dairy Milk, no matter how much it cost.
Another thing Mamas should remember is that Milk contains just the nourishment that "Our Little Patrons" need, in just the proper proportions to "build up, to stay up, both body and brain," and this nourishment in Milk is in a form more readily digestible than in any other food. ”

“ Milk is an interesting food of great value because it combines in itself all three of the great classes of food-stuffs,—protein, starch-sugar, and fat. Its protein is a substance called casein, which forms the bulk of curds, and which, when dried and salted, is called cheese. The fat is present in little tiny globules which give milk its whitish or milky color. When milk is allowed to stand, these globules of fat, being lighter, float up to the top and form a layer which is called cream. ”

“ Milk, either in its natural state, or in the form of butter and cheese, is an article of diet so useful, wholesome and palatable, that dairy management, which includes all that concerns its production and treatment, constitutes a most important branch of husbandry. The physical conditions of the different countries of the world have determined in each case the most suitable animal for dairy purposes. ”

“ Scientists agree that milk protects by providing in the best form those necessities which are often lacking in other foods. Milk supplies calcium so necessary for sound bones and teeth, phosphorus, [Pg 160] easily digested protein, butter fat and milk sugar. Most important of all are the vitamins found in milk. Milk acquires these properties from the cow, a living factory manufacturing milk from raw products, which are the foods the cow eats—the pasture grasses and the cured hay, supplemented with carefully blended grain rations. ”

“ For the majority of those who lead healthy, simple lives, milk is an excellent article of diet, but the milk of each animal is distinguished by some peculiarities; and as that of the cow is by far the most useful to us, the following remarks will chiefly have reference to that source of supply. When drawn from the cow, the milk is of a yellowish-white colour, and is most yellow at the beginning of the period of lactation. ”

“ Let him have milk in every form—as milk gruel, Du Barry's Arabica Revalenta made with milk, batter and rice puddings, suet puddings, bread and milk, etc.
To harden the bones, let lime water be added to the milk (a table-spoonful to each tea-cupful of milk.)
Let him have a good supply of fresh, pure, dry air. He must almost live in the open air—the country, if practicable, in preference to the town, and the coast in summer and autumn. Sea bathing and sea breezes are often, in these cases, of inestimable value.
He ought not, at an early age, to be allowed to bear his weight upon his legs. ”

“ Milk which is acid in reaction, or blue in color, is unfit as a food for children and invalids. If a mother is uncertain as to the quality of the milk she is feeding her child, she should have it examined by the city chemist. ”

“ The milk, as fast as drawn, should be removed from the place of milking, lest it absorb odors from the droppings, the breath, or the exhalations from the cow's body—or even from the sweat and grime of the person and clothes of the milker—for milk is extremely sensitive to these influences. It is much more so than is popularly supposed, and should be put in a sweet atmosphere as soon as possible when drawn. Fine fancy goods, with the most delicious and delicate flavor, cannot be made from milk that has been exposed to the influence of a foul atmosphere. ”

“ CARE OF MILK IN THE HOME If received fresh and warm from the cow, milk should at once be strained through absorbent cotton or several thicknesses of cheese-cloth into wide-mouthed bottles or glass jars and placed in running water or ice water to cool as quickly as possible. ”

“ Milk being a vegetable juice, or that yields a nourishment partly vegetable and partly animalized, partaking more or less, of the good or bad qualities of Plants on which the Cow feeds—Milk, in its produce of Cream, Butter, Cheese and many of our luxuries, is a constituent part of our daily food, through every stage of Life, consequently great care ought to be taken, with respect to the food of Animals, who furnish us with so great, and necessary a part of our sustenance ”

“ Human milk is light and strengthening and much used in eye diseases. Cow's milk increases the secretion of semen. Buffalo's milk induces sleep when taken in large quantities. Goat's milk is sweet and light, and is recommended in phthisis and blood diseases. Sheep's milk is hot, and is believed to promote the growth of hair. ”

“ Second, the sipping and thorough insalivation of milk, by taking it into the mouth with something that requires thorough mastication, insures better digestion and assimilation, and less liability to produce intestinal gas.
Milk will harmonize chemically with all non-acid fruits, cereals and nuts. Milk is in chemical harmony with meat [277] and eggs, but all of these articles being highly nitrogenous, when taken at the same meal, the portions should be limited to the minimum. ”

“ Milk ought to be a great article in the diet: and even in this there should be choice. The milk of grass-fed cows has its true quality: no other. There are a multitude of ways in which this may be made a part both of our foods and drinks, and they should all be used. ”

“ We have then to consider chiefly two points in the production and handling of milk, first cleanliness in all manipulations and cleanliness of all utensils, and second rapid cooling and storage or transportation at low temperatures.
Milk is the natural food for all mammals and each species of mammal produces a milk of such composition as is most suitable for the young of the species. The-composition of cat's milk differs from that of cows, dogs or man's. Some animals produce milk which contains ten times as much fat as is contained in cow's milk. ”

“ Utilizing a Large Supply of Milk.—The urban consumer of milk accustomed to 1 or 2 quarts daily may wonder how an average of 10 quarts or more per day can be utilized. Plenty of uses will be found for the product. Milk will be used more often as a beverage; cream will be found delightful in many ways, in the form of butter and home-made ice cream, for example; and cheeses will provide an outlet for surplus whole or skimmed milk. ”

“ The liquefied albumen of the egg, and the crude or watery milk of the mammæ seem to have in all respects the same colour, taste, and consistence. For the first flow of milk is serous and watery, and women are wont to express water from their breasts before the milk comes white, concocted, and perfect.
Just as the colliquament found in the crop of the chick is a kind of crude milk, whilst the same fluid discovered in the stomach is concocted, white, and curdled ”

“ Hence, milk from Dutch cows compares very unfavourably with that of Jerseys or short-horns. Watery and acid foods like mangolds and brewers' grains produce a more aqueous milk than do albuminous and fatty foods like oil-cakes. (2) Sudden change of food, of weather and of temperature. (3) Nervous disturbances to which even a cow is subject, as, for instance, at shows, may greatly influence the composition of the milk. The portion obtained at the beginning of a milking is poorer in fat than that yielded towards the end. Morning milk is as a rule poorer in fat than evening milk. ”