Honestly, what does raw pastured cows milk taste like???

[JessJoy]

Is it funkier than pasteurized milk? How long does it last in the fridge? Is it homogenized? If not, is there usually a thick cream layer? I've found that non homogenized milk is hard to mix up without getting lumps...

Also curious about raw goat milk. I LOVE LaLoos chocolate ice cream!!!

[BetsyPage]

It tastes delicious! It has more *taste* to me than regular milk. Our milk (from jerseys) is sweet and creamy. It will separate but it is EASY to mix the cream back in. It is only hard to mix in pasteurized non-homogenized milk... we used to drink that, I had to shake it a lot more than I need to shake my raw milk.

Our milk stays sweet for 2 weeks (or more) in the fridge. If it starts to turn, that's fine, you can still use it in cooking, etc.

BTW I'm completely spoiled, and have lost my "taste" for store milk, it is just yucky to me too. My 6 yo acts as if I have betrayed her if we run out of raw milk and she has to drink store bought, she despises it lol. I have a milk-loving niece (used to wake asking for milk until she was over 4 yo) and she adores the raw milk I have let her have, will chose it over the other kind any day.

[JessJoy]

THanks! I hope to get up to a kinda local farm and take some home this weekend to try for myself. It's 40 minutes away, tho, so I thought it wise to query the hens!

[mosesface]

I think people are always so shocked to discover that raw milk tastes like MILK. It really does! It does taste "better" than pasteurized milk, but not weird or different. It's just good milk.

It is not homogenized, but it is very easy to mix. Just a couple shakes of the jug before pouring. Definitely no chunks!

[CookAMH]

It's delicious!! We love it. It's creamy and milky. Yes, it separates. Homogonization is not safe so it's worth needing to shake it a little! I sometimes have little lumps if it's been sitting a day or so but we drink it often enough that it keeps getting shaken. It lasts about a week and a half for us before smelling differently, but even then it's still safe.

[Arduinna]

Originally Posted by JessJoy

Is it funkier than pasteurized milk? How long does it last in the fridge? Is it homogenized? If not, is there usually a thick cream layer? I've found that non homogenized milk is hard to mix up without getting lumps...

Also curious about raw goat milk. I LOVE LaLoos chocolate ice cream!!!

It doesn't taste the same to me as store bought milk does. But then I've only had raw goat and cows milk from our own animals, back when we had the land for them. It actually took a decent amount of getting used to. We had a jersey cow and we used a cream separator when I wanted cream for butter or other things. Jersey milk has a high fat content and naturally separates but the goats milk ( we had oberhasli and nubian breeds) doesn't very much. Not the way cows milk does. You could a little cream rise but it isn't thick like with cows milk.

I do buy non homogenized milk sometimes at whole foods and I just spoon off the cream like I did when we had milk delivery as a kid. I don't bother trying to stir it in. It doesn't taste the same as our raw homegrown milk did.

[CeciMami]

It tastes like milk...only better/sweeter... I could never go back to store bought milk...it just tastes wrong to me now!

[MyLittleWarrior]

Due to budget reasons we've had to go back to store milk (it's free on WIC, and we don't have the funds for raw right now ) and I miss it so badly. I can't wait until I have my own cow and my own chickens and I can feed my family really healthy food that I raise myself!

Our raw milk was from a gorgeous Jersey cow named Kate. It was sweeter and cleaner tasting than store milk. There was a lot of cream, about 1/4 of the jar was cream, but it shook in easily and it still felt lighter on the tongue than store whole milk. Ours would stay sweet in the fridge for over a week. I think the longest I'd ever had some in there was close to two weeks, but really it never lasted that long because we drank it. I was always rationing the last 1/2 gallon the day or so before pickup day.

[mamadelbosque]

As others have said, it tastes like milk. But really, really *good* milk! And its not hard to mix the cream back in. I know what you mean when you say pastureized non-homogenized is a PITA though > I bought some of that *once* and was grossed out. But raw milk? Very, very yummy!! IME it lasts 7-10 days before I start to notice it going sour, but as others have noted, even when it sours its not gone 'bad' - I still use it to make muffins, pancakes, etc on the rare occasion that happens!!

After having raw milk for going on two years now, I really don't know that I could go back to store bought. I spose I could, if I *HAD* to, but I would really rather not!! Raw is just SO much better!! We were never big milk drinkers before I started getting raw, but now we all drink a glass at some point during the day - me, DH, DS1, & my dad. Our current share is 1.5 gallons a week, but I think we're going to have to up that to 2 whole gallons! Which is incredible, because, tbh we used to barely get through *1* gallon a week!!

[laohaire]

I only get lumps in the milk after two weeks or so.

I am a person really sensitive to the taste of milk - I don't really like it. So I was shy about trying raw milk. It didn't taste bad at first but I don't know how to describe it, I was expecting it to taste bad so it took a while. Then one day we had just bought some and I was super thirsty and we didn't have water in the car. I don't drink milk straight, because I don't really like it. But I was so thirsty I had to drink it, and it was good!

And then I was only using raw milk for a few weeks, then DH picked up a gallon of store milk to hold us over to the next visit to the farm, and I had some, and it tasted like chemicals! I was suprised, I was not at all expecting to think the store milk tasted different.

So now it's the raw milk or nothing, for me I really do like the taste now, even though I was skittish about it at first.

[loraxc]

I did a blind taste test with organic ultrapasteurized and raw (bc I'm a geek like that). The raw was slightly saltier with a more full flavor, while the pasteurized tasted flat in comparison. But IMO the difference was subtle.

[dogmom327]

When I tried it for the first time, the thing that instantly struck me was that the raw milk tasted clean. There was no funky aftertaste or film in my mouth.

[StrongBeliever]

I have my own dairy cows... Grew up with a dairy cow. In all my experience with showing people the raw-milk light, I have NEVER had a bad reaction. They are always glowing. When I was a kid, it was like a game I played when having friends over... How Much Will They Drink In One Sitting?!?! Or something of that nature. *haha* I had a good girlfriend of mine in junior high drink a gallon and a half over a one hour period while we ate dinner and made dessert.

It IS different, but absolutely in a good way. The mouth-feel is definitely different, but good like above posters mentioned. It also depends on the diet of the cow... I have my cow on a low grain, corn free diet, and her milk isn't as sweet and the cream is less filmy... Two things that I find very pleasant. I used to be a milk-hater as a kid... Even with our home-grown milk. But we had the family cow on a high-grain, corn-inclusive diet. So that makes a difference. As does the breed of cow... Jersey's being sweeter and creamier, Holsteins less so.

As far as the cream goes... The longer you let it sit the thicker and "drier" it will become. It is harder to reincorporate if it has sat untouched for over three days. In fact, if you want to make butter or drink absolutely skim milk, that is the ideal time to let it sit, so that all the cream rises and there is less milk in the cream. If you are shaking it from day one, it will stay mixed in pretty well... But be careful! If you are shaking a whole gallon a few times a day for a few days, you'll end up with butter floating on your milk. *haha*

There are a lot of things that play into the taste of raw-milk, but generally it is still milk... Not like an apples to oranges thing. You've got to be a real milk connoisseur to point out all the minute differences other than the fact that it tastes so much better.

Funny notes on consistency and quality... I've had people think they were drinking whole milk when they were drinking skim... It's that rich and good. I water extra milk down for my animals, and can dilute it way over half water before it starts to look as watery as store bought skim. Creepy!

[ScarletBegonias]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, raw milk is like the nectar of the gods!

one tip though, please buy in glass jars. ime, raw milk in plastic jugs tastes *funky*.

i have never been a milk drinker, but i love the taste of raw milk so much that i can drink 1 quart a day.

[Peacemamalove]

I went from drinking soymilk to drinking raw cow milk.....to me it had a VERY different taste kinda like a grassy after taste . It could just be me I am still getting used to it. I am very sensitive to tastes and this has been hard for me. To me it has a very distinct taste. I am hoping that soon I will be able to enjoy a creamy glass of milk but I am not there yet.

BUT...

If a add a dash of cinnamon and warm it up it tastes great.

[mamadelbosque]

Our raw milk comes in standard milk jugs and tastes just fine. The farm we get it from would like to use glass but doesn't have the ability to clean/sterilize the jars to their comfort level yet, so they use new milk jugs.

[BetsyPage]

Mine comes in plastic jugs and also tastes fine.

[Arduinna]

We stored our milk in stainless steel containers. So basically it was milked into a stainless steel milk bucket and then strained with a stainless steel strainer into either the cream seperater or a stainless steel flip top sealed jug. Sometimes we ran short of containers and I'd use plastic but it was a last resort. And if we were that runover with milk I ended up feeding it to the pigs anyway.

[bobandjess99]

We can taste changes in the cows diet here. Our farmer is not able to 100% grassfeed his cows at this time, it's like 90%, and when he throws in different feed, you can tell.
And I will say that I've never been able to get used to the thickness/richness/creaminess of the whole milk. What I do is buy one gallon solely forteh purpose of skimming, because it's cheaper than buying cream anyway. So, I let one gallon just stand for several days, and then skim off about half the cream. I then use that on oatmeal and stuff, and I drink the remainder of the lower-fat milk, while the kids drink a regular gallon of full-fat. It works well for us, and i don't have to fork over $11 for a ltitle jar of cream, LOL!

[aztraea]

Originally Posted by dogmom327

When I tried it for the first time, the thing that instantly struck me was that the raw milk tasted clean. There was no funky aftertaste or film in my mouth.

I've never liked milk because it left a sour taste in my mouth. Drank my first sip of raw milk like it was poison but, lo and behold, it tasted GREAT! No aftertaste at all and super creamy.