I usually use "store-boughten" half and half in my coffee. Probably takes about a tablespoon full to give my coffee the mellow creamy color I like.

Now that I am milking the jersey every day - - I have my own dairy! ! I've tried using thick cream, light cream, and half cream half milk, and it takes at least three times as much to give my coffee the light color I like, which equals the taste I prefer.

WHY is this? Wouldn't you think the fresh cream would dilute the coffee more than that store-bought stuff? Why does it take so much more of the home grown than the store bought?

This puzzle is beyond any scientific skills I have. ( I actually have none).

-- Granny Hen (cluckin along@cs.com), September 13, 2002

Answers

I,m not sure Granny Hen , but I'm guessing that the store bought cream is processed by being ultra-pasturized. What does ultra - pasturized mean. I don't know . But another guess would have me believe it is possibly heated down to become concentrated. Are you using your home grown cream raw ? If you want to get that concentrated consistency , you might try heating it long enough to make it more concentrated.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 13, 2002.

Its the homoganizing process of store bought cream. Watch ron Hazeltons' "Hands on History" program when he covers commercial dairy products on the history channel for more info on it.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 15, 2002.

Ok - - - Homogenizing.

Jay, I rarely watch TV. It would be TV or the internet, and there is SO much to learn via the net.

I've tried to find info on "home" homogenizing via google, but haven't had time yet to explore.

-- Granny Hen (cluckin along@cs. com), September 16, 2002.

superpasteurized means it's heated enough to kill all the bacteria, and does not need refrigerating. Most half and half is not superpasteurized. If you want to know the difference between your half and half and store bought, look at the ingredients on carton of store bought. If i recall correctly, it's not half and half, in reality.

-- joj (jump@off.c), September 17, 2002.

History Channel is much more than "TV". I learn just as much from the educational DSS channels as I do here. Many of the topics I share here, I get from history channel, learning channel, technology tv and cable one (the school channel) I have 4 recievers in here with my computer and scan the educational programming while surfing. They all have websites also.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 17, 2002.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question147.htm Pasteurization is a compromise. If you boil a food, you can kill all bacteria and make the food sterile, but you often significantly affect the taste and nutritional value of the food. When you pasteurize a food (almost always a liquid), what you are doing is heating it to a high enough temperature to kill certain (but not all) bacteria and to disable certain enzymes, and in return you are minimizing the effects on taste as much as you can. Milk can be pasteurized by heating to 145 degrees F (62.8 degrees C) for half an hour or 163 degrees F (72.8 degrees C) for 15 seconds.

Ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization completely sterilizes the product. It is used to created "boxes of milk" that you see on the shelf at the grocery store. In UHT pasteurization, the temperature of the milk is raised to about 285 degrees F (141 degrees C) for one or two seconds, sterilizing the milk.

Prior to pasteurization, many diseases were transmitted

-- W Ranger (db_miller@hotmail.com), January 22, 2003.

Pasturization is no guarantee that your milk is 100% safe,and is often an excuse for dirty dairies and sloppy milk production(for example,pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease, with which most modern cows are infected. The Johne’s bacteria is suspected of causing Crohn’s disease in humans)..The practice of heating milk to kill germs was instituted in the 20s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods.With todays modern production methods(stainless steel tanks,milking.machines,etc,)it is possible to commercially buy clean raw milk from certified healthy cows in several states ;raw milk may be bought directly from the farm in many more.(By executive order, it is forbidden to transport raw milk across state lines.).

-- Kathy Gibb (gibbkathy@hotmail.com), July 22, 2004.