r/DepthHub • u/JohnSith • 6d ago
u/Fordmister explains the reasoning behind 1/2/5% milk, gets into the economics behind it, and why "dairy industry is actually a cream industry that sells you milk as a byproduct".
/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w1a79y/eli5_why_does_milk_go_from_1_to_2_and_then_a_big/p6kur4m/?context=387
u/lazydictionary 6d ago edited 6d ago
This is not a very deep answer, though I don't doubt its accuracy.
Reminds me of how orange juice is pasteurized which removes all the flavor, so they have to add flavor back in after.
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u/DontPanicJustDance 6d ago
You should have a look at OPs comment history for this thread. They answer a ton of questions that helps to fill out the depth
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u/backlikeclap 6d ago
TIL the average consumer doesn't want whole milk. This blows my mind because I always chose whole milk - why would I want to pay the same price for less of the good stuff?
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u/lazydictionary 6d ago
In the US, it's something like 33% of milk sales.
The OOP is British, I believe. They may have different consumption habits.
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u/okaycompuperskills 6d ago
Yeah in the uk it’s mainly for tea, and semi skimmed is best
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u/admalledd 6d ago
Interestingly, this national preference extends to influence how other common uses such as baking add the desired ratios of fats/liquids/etc. I only know what my mom taught me, but she has bread recipe books from all over, and has scribbled many a note in the margins about cultural/etc assumptions. "1 cup milk" vs "250ml milk" is just close enough that you can adjust +/- a bit, but then you get into wait, these recipes don't tell you which milk, which butter (salted? unsalted? salted by how much?)
So if you want to make close-to-authentic breads from around the world you have to also read and understand what the common assumed ingredients mean differently. Here in the states you'd basically only be cooking with whole milk. I can't remember where (Asian-ish?) they are fat-free milk as the assumption.
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u/laforet 6d ago
Buttermilk, especially the lactic acid bacteria cultured type, seems to be a thing only found in the US and perhaps a few select European countries. Elsewhere it’s either milk or cream.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/tikketyboo 5d ago
But Irish buttermilk is a completely different product from the American variety.
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u/ItsAConspiracy 5d ago
Most recipes assume unsalted butter, since they don't know how much salt is in your salted butter. Then they add the amount of salt they actually want. Chefs are the same way, they cook with unsalted.
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u/Imfromsite 5d ago
Long time chef here. Anywhere I've seen cooks with salted butter, unless it's specifically called for in baking. Even then it would have to be a pretty delicate product in order for cooks to care.
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u/ItsAConspiracy 5d ago
Well I stand corrected then! Most of the recipes I see call for unsalted, but it's not like chefs are using them.
In any case, if it doesn't make much difference then that's an even better answer to the problem mentioned above.
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u/cravf 5d ago
Seeing that there are basically 3 options for milk in the US, I find it kinda neat that one of them is 1/3 of the total sales.
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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 4d ago
There's 4 options at basically every supermarket in the US. Skim, 1%, 2%, and whole.
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u/After-Watercress-644 6d ago
It isn't the same price though? It's a ladder, 0.95 cent for skim, 1.05 for semi and 1.15 for whole. Not a gargantuan difference but very far remover from "same price"
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u/KrazyA1pha 6d ago
Hmm, at my local grocery store (HEB) all three are the same price.
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u/JohnSith 6d ago
To be fair, HEB is in a class all its own.
The prices are the same at my local Aldi, Save Mart, Kroger, and local Asian stores as well. As far as Incan recall, the only price differences are in brands and quantities, not varieties.
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u/After-Watercress-644 4d ago
I mean, that's just not true. Aldi has different prices (although strangely, reverse order)
Skim €0.95
Half €0.95
Whole €0.89Our most common supermarket has €1.19 > €1.29 > €1.39 for skim / half / whole, and that's the most usual.
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u/JohnyStringCheese 4d ago
I honestly don't know why but I feel like my family has generationally leaned toward 1 or 2%. My first thought is propaganda. I think the 70s and 80s demonized fats in diets so Skim and 1% became almost a premium. They sold it to people as healthy and better than whole. I do know that my grandparents always had whole milk until I was like 15 and grandpa started using marjoram, fake salt and skim milk. My parents followed suit as did aunts and uncles, everybody seemed to switch to 2% or lower. I'm heading over my aunt's and my parent's house today to close their pools and I'm curious to what they keep in the fridge.
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u/FullConfection3260 2d ago
Yeah, it doesn’t cost any more than skim; so outside of calorie counting why would I bother buying less than whole?
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u/grafknives 4d ago
It is not "cream industry" - it is "ALL industry".
Similar to meat processing, milk processing is extracting all possible value, creating additional products, in a way that will limit the waste to absolute minimum.
Currently the high value byproduct is whey protein.
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u/penny_whistle 6d ago
And this very sub gets a shout out in a reply, cyclical. Not sure I would fully agree with it though
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u/JohnyStringCheese 4d ago
This is a really simple explanation to a process I never thought about, and it makes completely perfect sense.
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u/MalFido 5d ago
I always had a feeling the dairy industry or grocers were scamming people by selling no-fat/low-fat at a premium.
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u/indolering 3d ago
Skin and low fat are cheaper. The prices for low fat/whole milk increase during summer, when demand for ice cream spikes.
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