Whole Cow's Milk or Skim Cow's Milk & Cream?

[Cheese Head]

I've noticed a few people using cheese making recipes that call for cow's skim milk & cream such as what Stuart is currently using.

Conversely I've generally used whole cow's milk.

The cow's milk others and I are generally using is store bought pasteurized & homogenized milk and ultra-pasteurized & homogenized "whipping" cream, at least here in North America as tough to get raw milk.

Different fat content of milks and creams in USA according to Wikipedia:

• Nonfat/Skim/Skimmed/Fat Free = 0-0.5%
• 1%/Lowfat = ~1.0%
• 2%/Reduced Fat = ~2%
• Whole = ~3.25%
• Half & Half (common for coffee) = 10.5-18%
• Light/Coffee/Table Cream = 18-30%
• Medium Cream = 25%
• Whipping Cream/Light Whipping Cream = 30-36%
• Heavy Whipping Cream = 36%
• Manufacturers Cream = 40%
• Butter = 80%

And for UK:

• Skimmed = <0.3%
• 1%/The One = 1.0%
• Semi-skimmed = 1.5-1.8%
• Whole/Full Fat = 3.5%
• Channel Island Milk/Breakfast Milk = 5.5%

My question is, why not just use ~3.25-3.5% fat whole milk and add some cream if need higher fat content rather than using skim milk with 0-0.5% fat and then adding very high fat content cream back in? Especially as whole, 2%, 1%, 0% are in North America, all priced the same or almost the same.

Or am I missing something here?

[Likesspace]

John, great post....
Right now I am trying something different with my milk.
On the last few batches I have been using 3 gallons of 2% with 1 gallon of whole milk. I have also been adding 24 oz. of heavy (ultra pasteurized) whipping cream to each 4 gallon batch.
The results of this method have been by far the best curd I have gotten to date.
The curd is very firm and really appears to be of the same consistancy of raw milk curd that I've seen.
Of course I have no way of knowing if this will produce a cheese that has the proper consistancy but as for the curd set, I am sold.
Tonight I did a Provolone with 2 gallons of whole milk and 8 oz. of whipping cream and although I was very happy with the curd I got out of this, it was nothing compared to the 2%/whole/cream mixture I've been using for the past two weeks.
I've been doing a lot of experimenting lately and my best curd comes from using the mixture of 2%, whole, and whipping cream and making sure that the milk sits at room temperature (70 degrees) for at least three hours.
Each time I've followed this protocol I've been extremely satisfied with my curd set.
Thanks for making this post.
I'm really going to be interested in seeing what others have to say.

Dave

[stuartjc]

I feel all special now 

I am using the skim milk + whipping cream because I am just starting out, and the skim milk is $2.49 a gallon in Aldi! It makes it cheaper for me while I don't know what I am doing, then I can start using the whole milk once I am happy I have the basic techniques sorted 

[Cartierusm]

What recipe are you using, because I don't any recipes that acutally use skim milk? A lot of people and books might refer to skim milk but they are really talking about 2%. Seeing as whole milk is only 3.5%, 2% is really not that low.

[stuartjc]

see under "dry and cream" here: http://schmidling.com/milk.htm

I got the skim milk because it's cheaper!

[Tea]

My book advised to use skim milk when you need to standardize milk for making parm/romano etc, as they need a low cream percentage.

[Cartierusm]

I was just making sure everyone else knew as originally I thought skim and 2% were the same.

[chilipepper]

This is a great post as I've many of the same questions.  First off with 'skim milk' do you think the recipes that call for this are talking traditional skimming of the cream off the raw milk?  I would tend to think more like Carter and say these are probably in the 2% range rather than skim milk by 'store bought' standards. It would be interesting to find a way to easily test the milkfat content.

[Cheese Head]

chilipepper(Ryan)

I think you have something there in that many recipes are handed down over the ages and/or could be referring more to skimmed raw milk where skimmed meant taking the cream off the top, not to modern mass manufactured milk where it is processed in fat content down to the second decimal place IE 3.25% whole milk.

When I say modern, I mean in the last 40-50 years as when I was young I remember cream on top of store bought milk, and today's choice of whole, 2%, 1%, skimmed is thus a recent occurrence, in fact I don't remember 1% here in US until the last 10 years.

[stuartjc]

John, you make a very fine point.

And for clarification (me being from a different country and all!), is "vitamin D milk" the same as "whole milk", or is it some industrial abomination 

[Cartierusm]

That's a good point Stuart, that I've always thought about, but I have no choice so I don't really care to do the research. But I think it's whole milk wherein they add Vitamin D back in.

[stuartjc]

tell you what... I will buy 2 gallons of it and turn it into a farmhouse Cheddar, and let you know how it turns out

[Likesspace]

Hi guys....
As for true skim, it's worthless in cheesemaking.
The first time I tried to make a parmesan, I used skim...not 2%, not 1% but skim.
The result was that it cooked to a curd that closely resembled gravel.
I've decided that if a recipe calls for skim they are speaking of what we know as 2% milk.
I used this on my last parmesan (along with a gallon of whole) and was really happy with the results.

Dave

[Cartierusm]

You can't use it, but some books call 2% skim, or at least one book does so it confused me originally.

[Cheese Head]

Likesspace/Dave

I don't think store bought non/very low fat skim is worthless in cheesemaking as many people seem to be using it, as long as it's used with some cream, but then it kind of voids the point and might as well just use 2% or whole milk.