My generation of English kids were brought up on free school milk. It was stacked in crates in the playground. On winter mornings, the foil caps were lifted off by plugs of ice. On summer afternoons it was already well on the way to cottage cheese. We were highly educated in all the possible flavours of fresh milk........!
Are they called ....Cows? ;-)
We don't drink it neat. We put it into coffee for breakfast, we whisk it up with a good dollop of Van Houten & sugar for cocoa, we mix it with eggs & vanilla & sugar to make oeufs au lait etc and we might even, if we are being modern & Anglo-Saxon, pour it onto repulsive bits of polystyrene claiming to be cereal-based breakfast health-food but that is about it. So the taste of milk itself doesn't really affect us. It is so much better unpasteurised & well matured into lovely stinky cheese anyway.
Luckily, we have fresh, raw milk dispensers at the dairy co-op, and dotted around Haute Savoie.
The French can detect subtle differences between bottled water from different sources, but appear to be taste-blind when it comes to milk.
And there was I thinking it was the "juice of the barley" that was the beverage of choice in Ireland......!
Coming from Ireland, I simply find it astonishing that the french don't normally drink fresh milk. there is a huge bovine presence in the country, so I assume most of it is meat, I just thought that being famous for their cheeses and pastries, milk and cream would be high on the availability list.
I can get both fresh in Ariege (09) in the supermarkets, but as I drink coffee as espresso every morning, we just don't bother - it goes off too quick.
But I buy the UHT to make porridge in winter, and it too goes off after a few days in the fridge, once opened.
But yes, UHT milk here is nothing like the stuff I have had the unfortunate experience of tasting in Irish hotel conference rooms - yeuck!! Literally used to colour the tea/coffee. Wouldn't dream of using it for porridge, so the UHT here in France is definitely of a higher calibre.
But i decided not to whine an pine about the lack of fresh milk and cream (and many other things I was used to in Ireland), just get on with it I say. When in Rome.... and all that...
originally Palm line, latterly the RFA
I joined about the same time Jim and the one thing I missed was the fresh milk ! I used to dream about drinking a pint of cool FRESH milk, especially in the tropics. Being the sparks I always made sure fresh milk was at the top of the Chief Stewards provisions list before sending the message off !
Who did you sail with Jim ?
When I served on submarines we would go away for deterrent patrols of three months, all we had was frozen or dried/canned products, the fresh food was all gone by the third or fourth day, with a crew of 150 we would take about 10tonne of UHT milk, you get used to the taste but fresh milk tastes excellent when you return.
when I joined the Merchant Navy in 1973 milk came in 2 forms, sweetened condensed (which was fantastic in hot chocolate) and long life, it is sad to say I became a devotee of long life and to this day only drink UHT milk and even that as demi -creme, coming from the Lake district which has some beautiful fresh milk I should be ashamed of myself !!!!
Thanks for replying. Bit too far for me as I live near the Herault border. I can usually get fresh milk at Leclerc in Mazamet but there have been several occasions recently, including today, when they don't have any. Stock management is generally pretty appalling there anyway but it's particularly annoying when it's milk they run out of. It's also a 25km round trip which makes it even more annoying. None of the other supermarkets in Mazamet stock good milk. It probably seems like such a small thing to be complaining about but I drink a lot of tea!!
Hi we get fresh milk att our supermarket in Herault. Unless there are a lot of tourists it is easy to come by. we use Intermarche's own brand and it will keep for at least a week in the fridge. Equally it freezes well and I keep a supply in the freezer "just in case" However I would LOVE to get my hands on double cream !
We live in an area where Comte, Bleu de Gex and other delicious cheeses are made, and my source of good cream is the Fromagerie. I buy tubs of it without knowing how thick it is - leave it a day and it will thicken! It tastes like I expect it to, whereas the cartons from the supermarket have a UHT taste to the so-called cream. Worth seeking out a fromagerie if they exist near you, you may discover other delights as well. At Xmas our local fromagerie sells its cheese matured in "marc pressings" which is effectively grape mush with pips, and the cheese is amazing, but it is only sold in the fromagerie and the general public would never know it existed.
We have drunk skimmed milk for years, and I have to say that when you are only drinking white water like that it doesn't make much difference if it is fresh or UHT, but it is certainly better than UK UHT used to be 20 years ago. I think the full cream milk used to be treated but now the milk is skimmed first, which tastes more realistic.
Hi Mandy,
you don't say where in the Tarn you live, but the Intermarché in Puylaurens certainly sells fresh milk [lait cru] from a local farm [in 1 litre plastci pouches for about 82 cents]. Whether it is too creamy or not I cannot tell, as I don't drink milk, only use it for cooking etc. As for it being "raw", well so is most decent cheese and I don't see people dropping dead from eating it!
No bothered about fresh milk as I drink black coffee, but when I want double cream I take a pot of mascarpone and add a litte of the carton cream readily available until I get the consistency of the cream that I desire. Very digestible and nice and creamy. Makes a good substitute.
There must be dairy farmers near to you ? pop along with a churn and help yourself !
My late husband was French and I always understood that because of the high incidence many years ago of tuberculosis in France that nobody drank lait cru which has carried on.
John. The Patak's are only vaguely Asian they're from Uganda. There is no such thing as curry. Most of us grew up eating "Indian" food which in fact was the product of Sylheti labourers who had moved to UK. It's not even properly Pakistani.We didn't move to France for a larger house , or better weather (would be nice if it were) and we certainly have never wanted a swimming pool. As to the rest of your comments they are quite frankly a disgrace.
Believe me, it doesn't, Alexander. I had to drink the stuff recently on doctor's orders and I was so glad to get back to the real stuff. Anyway how can something without lactose be milk?
The French milk industry has had years of practice to perfect the technique of sterilising milk without (over)heating the sugars contained within and causing that "caramelised" taste to come through, but it is still there nonetheless!
Actually, I've just had a thought - I wonder whether "lactose-free" UHT tastes better than normal UHT ? Will have to give it a try.