"milk" news and stories

These days, the question isn't really "got milk?" It's more like "which milk?"

Everything from old-fashioned whole milk to lactose-free skim to unsweetened soy -- it seems like the last time everyone in the family reached for the same gallon may have been back when they all shared the same phone number, too.

And if a venture backed by Dubai's ruling sheik gains momentum, Americans may one day be adding yet another carton to their shopping carts: camel milk.

As the Associated Press reports, a company in the United Arab Emirates has recently been cleared by E.U. health regulators to become the largest exporter of camel milk products to Europe. If all goes well there, camel milk could eventually make its way to the U.S.

by Josh Loposer

Would you drink milk from a bag? If you live in Eastern Canada (and you're not lactose intolerant), you've probably been drinking bagged milk for decades. You may even think it's normal...but it's not.

However, that doesn't mean that bagged milk shouldn't be more widespread. The bag o' milk phenomenon isn't limited to Canada by any means. South Africans, Hungarians, Argentinians and the Chinese all embrace the bag; and the UK is currently following suit. Are these nations blazing the eco-packaging trail, or simply clinging to a backwards milk-drinking tradition?

Enjoy a little moo juice in your coffee? Yeah, so does much of the rest of the world. But when did we all start making that delicious black liquid brown?

According to the (amazing, and available for free download) 1922 volume "All About Coffee" by William H. Ukers, it was a Dutch ambassador in 1660 who first had the bright idea to mix nature's liquid candy with the life-giving elixir we know as a cuppa joe. French doctors did one better 15 years later, when they started prescribing the following combination as medicinal: "Place on the fire a bowl of milk. When it begins to rise, throw in to it a bowl of powdered coffee, [and] a bowl of moist sugar, and let it boil for some time."

Okay, that actually sounds kind of gross. But milk's natural sweetness remains the obvious counterpart to coffee's inherent (and, hopefully, pleasant) bitterness. Read on after the jump for some other international historical takes on the light-two-sugars revolution.

• Simple tips for a hassle-free Thanksgiving.
• Compound butters pack an amazing punch.
• A pre-roasting milk bath is a good alternative to salt-brining your holiday bird.
• But don't forget the gravy.
• Here's an American culinary tradition you've probably never heard of: tomato pudding.
• Cranberries are good for the adult kind of "sauce" too.
• Should you have a catastrophe on the big day, try one of these turkey hotlines.
• Add a Thai twist to turkey leftovers.

Pecan milk. Photo: Flickr, Alejandra of Always Order Dessert.

To call this creamy, cinnamon-specked beverage simply a "nut milk" is an understatement -- it's clearly not something to be wasted on a bowl of cereal. In fact, on her blog, Always Order Dessert, milk(shake) maker and photographer Alejandra writes, "It's lusciously creamy and tastes kind of like an amazing nutty milkshake, except that it's actually healthy."

When served in a wine glass and punctuated with two perfect pecans, this non-dairy "milk" -- which also contains honey, coconut milk, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt and sugar -- certainly gives cashew milk (or soy or almond milk, for that matter) a run for its money, even if it does take eight hours to make. We can think of only one thing that would make it more appetizing -- a shot of Kahlua!

[Via Flickr]

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