🧀 Dairy products
Also known as: dairy
Everything made from milk: fermented products, cheeses, cream and butter, preserves, desserts.
Dairy products are everything made from milk: fermented milk drinks and yogurts, curd and cheeses, cream and butter, preserved milk (condensed milk and milk powder), desserts such as ice cream, and the by-products of processing — whey and buttermilk. The FAO depicts this variety as a “tree” of dairy products: whole milk yields cream and skimmed milk, cream yields butter and buttermilk, cheese yields whey, and so on.
Milk processing arose above all as a way to preserve it. Fresh milk spoils quickly, while souring, separating the fat, drying and cheesemaking made it possible to store nutrients for weeks, months and even years. In addition, much of the lactose is broken down during souring and cheese ripening, so many people with reduced lactase activity tolerate yogurt and hard cheeses better than whole milk.
The set of traditional products depends on the region and the animals: in South Asia, ghee, dahi and paneer; on the Asian steppes, koumiss and dried curd cheeses; in the Mediterranean, sheep’s and goat’s cheeses. According to the FAO, about 40% of the world’s butter and ghee is produced in India.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🧀 Dairy products → kind of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Part of
- 🥛 Milk
Frequently asked questions
What counts as dairy products?
Fermented milk products, curd, cheeses, cream, butter and ghee, condensed milk and milk powder, ice cream and other milk desserts, as well as whey and buttermilk.
Why are fermented dairy products easier to tolerate with lactose intolerance?
Starter bacteria ferment part of the lactose, and in hard cheeses almost none is left after the whey is removed and the cheese ripens.
Similar
📜 Milk in culture and language · 🥛 Drinking milk by processing · 🥛 Milk by species · 🏡 On the farm: feed, grazing and milking · 🚚 Milk transport, storage and sale · 🍼 Milk containers and tableware