Fat free half & half?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Even what is sold in the stores as whole milk tastes like water to me. I grew up near a jersey dairy and nearly all our milk came from that dairy. That milk was high enough in butter fat to have a slight yellow tinge and certainly tasted better. We have a Jersey cow now and Mrs. doesn't like me using the milk because it "isn't tested" but it is certainly better than the store crap. Although I rarely ever milk her. She will stand still in the pasture for me to get a pint or so every so often. (We keep her calves on her until the next calf is due. ) One thing that few folks ever had is raw milk. Despite all the health risks, nothing on earth is as good as a tall glass of cold raw milk. Complete with the natural lumps of cream and butter fat. (That makes some city folk gag right there.)

And the other dairy product that bugs the crap out of me is buttermilk. Stores sell cultured buttermilk. To me, butter milk is what is left of the cream when the butter is made and separated out. What does a "culture" have to do with buttermilk? I made some butter growing up and we did drink the fresh buttermilk often right from the churn. It was a lot like skim milk.

[Mark Bolton]

Even what is sold in the stores as whole milk tastes like water to me. I grew up near a jersey dairy and nearly all our milk came from that dairy. That milk was high enough in butter fat to have a slight yellow tinge and certainly tasted better. We have a Jersey cow now and Mrs. doesn't like me using the milk because it "isn't tested" but it is certainly better than the store crap. Although I rarely ever milk her. She will stand still in the pasture for me to get a pint or so every so often. (We keep her calves on her until the next calf is due. ) One thing that few folks ever had is raw milk. Despite all the health risks, nothing on earth is as good as a tall glass of cold raw milk. Complete with the natural lumps of cream and butter fat. (That makes some city folk gag right there.)

And the other dairy product that bugs the crap out of me is buttermilk. Stores sell cultured buttermilk. To me, butter milk is what is left of the cream when the butter is made and separated out. What does a "culture" have to do with buttermilk? I made some butter growing up and we did drink the fresh buttermilk often right from the churn. It was a lot like skim milk.

In the not too distant past we had an old school "milk man" that parked his truck at the foot of our driveway and carried glass bottles of whole milk, half and half, cottage cheese, butter, you name it, up the drive in a wire basket. Pulled the empty glass out of our basket and replaced it with full (in a cooler box in the summer). I use to love opening a gallon glass bottle of whole milk and having to pull out a butter knife to scoop the slug of sheer delight off the top of the bottle before you could pour any milk.

That was perhaps 20 years ago and we have since moved to a land where that is not even a remote option.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

When I was in high school, I had that job. I ran the milk up to the little insulated boxes on the porches. Another guy drove the truck. Did that from midnight to 6 am, four days a week for over a year., back in 1967.

[Jim Becker]

You are far more trusting of medical professionals than I am. I learned long ago that the variation in education and quality of work of physicians is as at least as big as the variation in education and quality of work of cabinet makers. My wife is not paralyzed from the waist down and my grown up daughter was born because we sought the opinion of someone besides the premier neurosurgeon in the town where we lived.

Note that I did suggest asking them "why"...

-----

We had a milk-man when I was a kid...my father later hired him to sell insurance.

[Bruce Wrenn]

And the other dairy product that bugs the crap out of me is buttermilk. Stores sell cultured buttermilk. To me, butter milk is what is left of the cream when the butter is made and separated out. What does a "culture" have to do with buttermilk? I made some butter growing up and we did drink the fresh buttermilk often right from the churn. It was a lot like skim milk.

Notice that most of the stuff in stores is FAT FREE. They add food starch and other types of gums to make it feel rich and creamy. Because I use buttermilk in baking (biscuits, cakes and pies) I start with a bottle of store bought, and as soon as some is used, I sour whole milk with vinegar and add back to store bought stuff. This way, I adding butter fat to buttermilk. In the RARE occasions we have a jug of milk start to sour, I add vinegar and make "buttermilk." Tomorrow, I will be using some to make two "Buttermilk Coconut" pies to take to a dinner Friday night. Saturday morning I will use more to make biscuits.

[Larry Foster]

Fat is your friend.

And it doesn't make you fat.
Quite the opposite.

Those USDA guidelines that we all grew up with have changed.

And corn syrup is really bad.
Especially since it's made from GMO corn as are most corn products in this country

[Peter Kelly]

Half & half is half milk and half cream. Cream without butter fat is no longer cream. This morning at the market, I saw a container of fat free half & half, complete with a picture of a cow on the front. Seems to me, the world has become pretty twisted when folks call something that necessarily contains cream, fat free.

Fat free half & half is Elmer's white glue diluted with water so technically yes, there is some form of cow in it.

[Brian Elfert]

Food companies don't add ingredients to food like fat free half & half for the heck of it. They add ingredients to make the final product taste as close to the real thing as possible. Naturally, they want to use the cheapest ingredients possible so they use corn syrup instead of sugar.

My mom bakes all the time. I remember her using corn syrup instead of sugar in some baked goods to make it taste right.

[Mark Bolton]

People and companies use corn syrup because its cheap and because of corporate and government sponsored campaigns to get people at the time to move in a consumer direction they feel is right, profitable, healthy, at the time. Unfortunately individuals (more often than not mothers who are providing for their families as best they can and know how) get stuck in a routine that was put in their heads.

You can't walk into a field and get corn.syrup. You can walk into a field and get cane surgar. You can walk into the woods and harvest honey.

Avoiding things that are extremely far from their natural form (i.e. you need a lab and a chemist on staff to achieve production) is simply the smartest route. Pharma is rampant, health issues that simlly are so rare 50 years ago that they may well have not existed are rampant,... It's in the food. In the water.

Eat all the corn syrup and 10 sylalable food additives you want.

[John K Jordan]

You can walk into the woods and harvest honey.

From my perspective as a beekeeper more people are using more honey now. This year I had a bunch of requests for honey in 1/2 and 1 gallon sizes from people who a few years ago had bought just a few pounds. Before, people were using it mostly for flavor, now more as an ingredient. We are as well - had some cushaw pie with honey, banana nut bread, salad dressing, sweetener for yogurt and granola, in various cooked dishes like carrots. We use a lot as sweetener in hot tea.

Corn syrup is evil in honey. Honey "blend" you buy at the supermarket is probably "watered down" with corn syrup. Some unscrupulous honey producers cheat and mix in cheap corn on the sly to extend profits. Some feed corn syrup to the bees to bump up their production - they don't have to mix it that way. Best bet is to get local honey from a small-time beekeeper!

JKJ

[Dave Lehnert]

Our Doctor says " If it has a label.don't eat it" His point is to eat more fresh produce.

[Andrew Joiner]

Our Doctor says " If it has a label.don't eat it" His point is to eat more fresh produce.

I agree Dave. As long as you can wash the crap out of it (literally). Organic spinach and leafy vegetables have killed people even after washing the fresh produce.

[Mark Bolton]

From my perspective as a beekeeper more people are using more honey now. This year I had a bunch of requests for honey in 1/2 and 1 gallon sizes from people who a few years ago had bought just a few pounds. Before, people were using it mostly for flavor, now more as an ingredient. We are as well - had some cushaw pie with honey, banana nut bread, salad dressing, sweetener for yogurt and granola, in various cooked dishes like carrots. We use a lot as sweetener in hot tea.

Corn syrup is evil in honey. Honey "blend" you buy at the supermarket is probably "watered down" with corn syrup. Some unscrupulous honey producers cheat and mix in cheap corn on the sly to extend profits. Some feed corn syrup to the bees to bump up their production - they don't have to mix it that way. Best bet is to get local honey from a small-time beekeeper!

JKJ

That is one of the most refreshing posts Ive read in a long time John. Its really great to hear that you are selling honey in those quantities. The corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup, thing is simply ridiculous. Food producers have put that crap in anything and everything they can possibly squeeze it into. And they have gotten the majority of consumers drunk, and addicted, to "sweet". I couldnt eat a jar of commercial pasta sauce if you paid me. Full of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup, to make up for dead flat flavorless tomatoes and cheap spices and seasonings (if any at all in favor of artificial flavorings).

But kids are drunk on the sweet thing. Its insane.

I listened to a podcast a long while back that said something to the effect of the U.S. population has been fed corn, corn sweeteners, corn derivatives, for so long, that its basically detectable in the entire populations DNA. We are now basically partly made of corn.

[John K Jordan]

...I couldnt eat a jar of commercial pasta sauce if you paid me. Full of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup, to make up for dead flat flavorless tomatoes and cheap spices and seasonings (if any at all in favor of artificial flavorings)....

You are probably like us then - we eat as much as we can from the garden. We grow tomatoes, carrots, corn, beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, cushaw, rhubarb, onions, potatoes, squash, greens, and herbs, fresh eggs, peaches, apples, pears, blueberries, strawberries - can't remember what else! I buy meat off the hoof from friends.

A lot goes in the freezers for off season but a pot of vegetable soup made from fresh garden produce - to die for. (I do the garden and orchard, my Lovely Bride invents recipes, we eat like kings!) Truely, we are blessed beyond comprehension.

honey.jpg garden.jpg cushaw_IMG_20140710_181202_749.jpg radishes.jpg
blueberries_IMG_20130726_083012.jpg eggs_platter.jpg peppers.jpg beans_IMG_20130707_142330_034.jpg

Thinking about all this is making me hungry.

JKJ

[Pat Pollin]

+1 to earlier poster-

coffee is black only from now on for me

rarely when i need something creamy- Coconut creamer