“The time has not come to say that the use of milk and eggs should be wholly discarded.”

“But because disease in animals is increasing, the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream or butter.”

“If milk is used, it should be thoroughly sterilized; with this precaution there is less danger of contracting disease from its use.”

State Boards of Health and Experiment Stations declare that from fifteen to thirty per cent. of the cows from which our cities draw their milk supply are affected with tuberculosis. In one locality it was found that 65 per cent. of the best milk that was presented was tubercular.

“Examination has determined that cream has from 10 to 500 times as many bacteria in a given quantity of milk as mixed milk. The bacteria nearly all rise to the top with the cream.”—“Life and Health,” April, 1909.

In considering the question of appendicitis, a writer in the American Medical Journal says: “The chief sources of tuberculosis infection of the alimentary tract are the ingestion of milk, butter and cheese from tuberculous cows....

“These authors (of the Experiment Station in Washington) consider that a very large amount of butter infected with tubercle bacilli is daily consumed by our people....

“Measure for measure, infected butter is a greater tubercular danger than infected milk.... Tests show that in the ordinary salted butter of commerce the Koch bacillus ‘may live and retain virulence practically four and a half months or longer.’”

To Pasteurize Milk

Place a dairy thermometer, or one in an unpainted tin case, in the milk; heat, preferably in double boiler, as quickly as possible, to a temperature of not less than 140 degrees F. and keep it there for 40 m., or raise to 158 degrees F. for 10–20 m. Cool rapidly. The rapid heating and cooling are necessary because a warm temperature is most favorable for the development of germs and the spores of germs which (spores) are not destroyed by this treatment of milk.

When milk is to be kept for several hours it should be heated in air-tight bottles or in bottles which have stoppers of sterilized cotton, by starting them in cold water and keeping them at a temperature of 149 degrees F. for a half hour after bringing the water to that point.

Pasteurizing milk does not give it the cooked taste that a higher temperature does.

When it is not possible to carry out these directions, just bring milk to the boiling point, or set bottles of milk or cream in cold water, bring the water to boiling and boil for 10–20 m. Of course the bottles should have something underneath them, to keep them from touching the bottom of the vessel in which they are standing.

To Sterilize Butter

Boil butter in a generous amount of water thoroughly. Cool, remove from the top of the water and drain.

Sterilized Butter

Pasteurize sweet cream the same as milk, cool quickly, let stand covered in a cold place for at least 4 hrs; whip or beat in a deep vessel, the inner cup of a double boiler or a pitcher, (some think it easier to shake the cream in a tightly corked, wide mouthed bottle or jar) until like whipped cream; then set the dish in slightly warm water, to raise the temperature of the cream enough to cause the butter to separate but not enough to make it oily. Remove the dish from warm water just as soon as butter begins to separate; pour off buttermilk and pour pure cold water over the butter. Work a little and pour water off; next pour on water with a little salt (1 teaspn. to the quart) and let it stand from 10 to 15 m. Remove butter to cold dish, add salt, about ½ tablespn. to the pound, if unsalted butter is not preferred; work a little, cover with a cloth wrung out of salt water, and let stand a few hours in a clean airy place. Then work a little and shape as desired. Do not work enough to spoil the grain and make the butter oily.

This is the method with which I have had the best success. The regular temperature for churning cream is from 58 to 60 degrees by the thermometer. Sterilized butter should be made fresh every day.

“Protein is the most costly of the food ingredients and the one most likely to be lacking in inexpensive meals, and is the nutrient which skim milk supplies in a cheap and useful form.”—R. D. Milner, Ph.B. Farmers’ Bulletin, 363, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

“Sour milk is the safest form to use if milk is not Pasteurized, as the acid of the milk kills all the germs except the lactic acid germ.”—Dr. Rand.

“People who cannot digest fresh milk or in whom it produces a feeling of heaviness and discomfort, can eat large quantities of curdled milk without inconvenience.”—W. Brown, M.B., Ch.B., in Edinburgh Medical Journal.

“Lactic acid precipitates the casein (clabbers the milk) but does not affect the fats and salts. Its effect on the casein is to improve the digestibility of this important compound, the meat element, which is the most valuable constituent of milk.... As a matter of fact, sour milk is really a more healthful food than sweet milk, digesting more rapidly and more completely.”—W. M. Esten, in Storr’s Bulletin, No.59.

Directions for making artificial buttermilk come with the tablets and preparations sold for that purpose.

As milk is a hearty food it should not be taken with other heavy foods such as nuts, legumes or eggs, but with bread, zwieback, crackers or rolls, parched or popped corn and other cereals.

Clear milk is coagulated by the gastric juice and should be taken slowly, in small amounts, so that the acid may have a chance to mix with it and form the curd in small particles. When drank rapidly, the curd will form in large pieces and be difficult of digestion, often causing distress and disease.

Some can digest sweet milk better if an acid is taken with it, but, as a rule, such individuals would better take nut milk and cream, preferably nuts, and plenty of juicy fruits.

In fact, considering the increase of disease among animals, it were better for us all to be learning more and more how to prepare foods without milk and eggs, educating ourselves and others away from them.

The next thing to copper or re-tinned vessels for heating milk to the boiling point without scorching, is a nice clean iron frying pan or round bottomed iron kettle. I have used a stone milk crock.

Brush the inside of whatever dish milk is to be heated in with oil or butter, as a still further precaution against scorching, for scorched milk is unusable.

Wash all utensils used for milk first in cold water, then with warm soapsuds, and then scald with perfectly boiling water. Wipe with clean dry towels and if possible put them in the sun.

When hot water is poured into vessels before they are washed clean, the casein is glued into the crevices, ready to make mischief with the next lot of milk.

Condensed milk, containing cane sugar, is thought by many physicians to be the cause of the great increase of diabetes, especially among children.

A pinch of salt added to rather thin cream will cause it to whip up light. Whip cream in a pitcher, the inner cup of a double boiler or even in a tin can, something deep and small around. Of course the cream and utensils should be very cold. Stop whipping while cream is smooth, before it begins to have any rough appearance.

Scalded, Devonshire or Clotted Cream

Let milk stand undisturbed in a cool, well ventilated place for 12 hours in summer, 24 in winter. Then set the pan carefully in some place over the fire where it will heat very slowly almost to the boiling point; it must not boil. (It is better to set the pan in water which will come up on the sides as high as the milk.) Let stand again in a cool place for 12 hours or until thoroughly cooled. Divide with a knife into squares, and skim by folding these squares over and over in rolls. Set in a cool place. This is a most delightful substitute for butter on bread, and it may also be used with cereals and fruits.

The cream may be placed by skimmerfuls in layers on a plate instead of being rolled.

USES OF SOUR CREAM WITHOUT SODA

Sour cream may be used without soda in—Pie Crust; Shortcake Crust; Dumplings for Pot Pies; Steamed Puddings, and all places where universal crust is used; Salad Dressings in all places where sweet cream is used; Soups, just before serving; Stewed Cabbage and Stewed Tomatoes; Gravy; Macaroni; Cottage Cheese—much better than sweet cream; Dominion Salad Dressing; Crackers; Cream Lemon Sauce; Lemon Cream Sauce; Sauce Antique; Pie Filling and Cake Fillings. With Green Peas, mixed with a little flour before putting it in, it can not be distinguished from sweet cream; and the same with all vegetables with which I have tried it excepting string beans: in those it tastes a little tart. It may be poured over Trumese in half-loaves or in slices to bake; and Whipped, when the slight tartness is desirable.

CHEESE

The process of “ripening” in cheese is a process of decay, and poisonous ptomaines are often developed. I have no doubt but it would be better if cheese were never taken into the human stomach. Our Father has given us such an abundance of clean, wholesome foods to select from that we can well afford to disregard the questionable ones.

Cottage Cheese

Skim a pan of well thickened sour milk, cut it carefully into 2-in. squares and set into a cool oven on an iron ring, or something to keep it from the bottom of the oven, and leave the door open. Turn the pan occasionally but do not stir the milk. Be careful not to let it get too warm. It should never be hot, only a little above blood heat. I have sometimes made it in the summer by setting the pan in the sun. When the curd and whey have separated, turn all into a bag and hang up to drain. Do not drain the curd too dry. Season with sweet or sour cream and a little salt; pile in a rocky mass in a glass dish and set in a cool place.

Pass Chili sauce, Sauce AmÈricaine or improved mayonnaise dressing with it, in serving.

Thick strained stewed tomato may be used instead of or with the cream.

If milk is stirred while thickening or while heating, it will yield only about ? as much cheese as it would otherwise.

If properly made the cheese will be soft and creamy, instead of rough, dry and tasteless. It should never be used in anything that is to be raised to a high temperature, as that would make it hard and indigestible.

Cottage cheese is a strong meat food, being the casein of the milk separated from the water.

Zeiger CÄse

1 gallon fresh milk, 1 pt. thick sour milk, 3 eggs. Beat eggs, and sour milk together and stir slowly into sweet milk just as it begins to boil. When curd rises to top, skim into colander and drain.