♨️ Boiling

Boiling is a home method for making raw milk safe. Raw (fresh from the cow) milk has not been pasteurised. It may carry the germs of dangerous diseases: tuberculosis, brucellosis, typhoid, as well as salmonella, listeria, E. coli and campylobacter. Raw milk is especially risky for children under 5, older people, pregnant women and people with weak immunity.

Heating milk to the boil kills these germs. Where there are no fridges, the FAO advises boiling milk right after milking. In Germany, unpackaged raw milk must be labelled “boil before use”, and in the EU raw milk packaging usually carries the same advice. Heating does little harm to the nutritional value; it is mostly the taste that changes.

Milk easily “boils over”, so you have to watch it. Hence the saying “burned by milk, you blow on water”, much like “once bitten, twice shy”. Many dishes are based on boiled milk: Mongolian urum made from the skin of boiled cream, the Chinese double-skin milk pudding, Indian dahi and rasgulla, and West African wagasi cheese. Shop-bought pasteurised milk usually does not need boiling.