MILK-
at a glance
Can you give examples of other dairy products?
Eatwell Guide group: Dairy. Main nutrient: Calcium, good for bones and teeth. Origin: We think that sheep, goats and cows were first domesticated in what is now the Middle East and Asia, so milk was likely to have first been used then. Now enjoyed in most countries. Season: Produced all year round. Storage: Refrigerate for around a week (check the use by date). Can be frozen.
Joke:
ank My brother dr iry! da my milk – how
Rumour has it
Cleopatra liked to bathe in donkey milk as she thought it was good for her skin.
Fat (contains vitamins A, D, E & K)
Lactose (milk sugar)
Water, protein and minerals (such as calcium)
Did you know? Butter, cheese and yoghurt are all made using milk. Ask an adult to help you mix some room-temperature cream in a food processor. Watch to see what happens. After a few minutes, the cream will turn into butter!
VARIETIES
How many different mammals can you name?
All mammals produce milk to feed their babies – including humans. We drink our mother’s milk when we are born, but we also like to drink and make food out of the milk of other mammals such as cows, goats, sheep and buffalos.
es Most of our milk com from these cows: Holstein-Friesian These milks have different flavours and amounts of fat. For example, cow’s milk is usually sweet and creamy but goat’s milk can taste strong and sour. Sheep’s milk is very high in fat so it is often turned into cheese rather than drunk or poured on cereal.
IN This unit, we will be looking at cow’s milk The milk from cows can have a different flavour depending on the breed of cow, the time of year and what the cow has been eating.
Some people prefer to take some of the fat out of milk so you have a choice of: ‘blue top’ whole milk (with about 4% fat), ‘green top’ semi-skimmed milk (about 2% fat) and ‘red top’ skimmed milk with all the fat taken out. The fat on its own is cream.
Which ‘top’ is your favourite?
Fresh milk straight from the cow contains bacteria. Heating milk will kill bacteria and help it stay fresh for longer – this is called pasteurisation. But heating milk will also kill some of the bacteria that are really good for us and it can change the flavour, so some people prefer to buy ‘raw’ milk that hasn’t been heated.
Did you know? Bacteria are tiny organisms that live all around us. You won’t be able to see them but they are everywhere – in our skin, in the air and the foods we eat. Most bacteria don’t do us any harm.
PRODUCING History
People have been milking animals for at least 6,000 years, but rather than drinking it, most of them used the milk to make cheese, which doesn’t go off so quickly and is easier to digest. Many ancient Romans and ancient Greeks thought that drinking milk was disgusting, but the ancient Britons loved it. Julius Caesar wrote: “Britons live on milk and meat.” Milk is produced all around the Before fridges were world. There are farms collecting invented, dairy farmers cow’s, goat’s, sheep and even used to bring cows into buffalo milk all over the UK. London and milk them in
where is it PRODUCED today?
front of their customers.
At Borough Market you can get milk from Hook & Son.
Say hello to the traders when you visit the Market! Can you spot cheeses and ice-cream made using different types of milk in the Market?
From this... ... to this
Milk is stored in a refrigerated tanker. It is then treated and bottled.
The milk is collected from their udders, sometimes three times a day. A cow usually makes about 22 litres of milk a day each.
Did you know? Research has shown that cows who are called by their names and have music played to them will produce more milk.
Herds of cows feed on grass in fields in the summer, or pickled grass, called silage, in barns in winter.
How is it
PRODUCED?
Useful words:
Farms that keep cows to produce milk are called dairy farms. Groups of cows are called herds.
A dairy cow can eat up to 50kg of grass per day and drink about 60 litres of water – that’s a small bath full! They use four stomachs to digest it all.
The energy from the food helps mother cows produce milk.
The most popular dairy cows in the UK are Holstein-Friesian, Guernsey, Dairy short horn, Ayrshire and Jersey
COOKING & EATING! Milk is great to drink and cook with. It contains lots of calcium which helps build bones and teeth.
Show + share We’d love to see all your experiments with milk so don’t forget to take some pictures to share! Tag #marketexplorers and tell us why you love milk
NUTRITION
COOKING
A glass of milk contains about half of all the calcium a seven-yearold needs every day.
Follow these easy recipes for calcium boosting goodness!
Summer milk contains different nutrients to winter milk because the cows are eating lush grass rather than dry feed.
AMERICAN
PREP
Make your own with a glass of cold milk whizzed up with a little vanilla extract and fresh fruit like banana or blueberries – ask a grown up to help you with the whizz!
Always check your milk. It will start to go ‘sour’ and smell a bit cheesy when it is getting old. It is still fine to cook with (especially for pancakes or our Irish soda bread recipe) but once it separates and goes lumpy throw it away.
The USA invented the tasty milkshake!
Did you know?
Some people are ‘lactose intolerant’ which means their stomachs can’t digest the milk sugar, called lactose. Instead, there are oat, rice, nut and soya drinks that can be used in the same way as milk.
Invent your own ions! flavour combinat
IRISH
Soda bread is a quick and easy way to use sour milk.
1. Mix together 400g plain flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp salt with about 300ml sour milk. 2. Stir to get a soft sticky dough. Tip out onto a lined baking tray that you have sprinkled with flour. Shape into a ball.
with t n e m i r e Exp flour, f o s e p ty adding y r t d an d nuts n a s d e e s
3. Cut a big X across the top and bake for about 30 minutes at 200˚C. Eat on the day! tsp
TIP: You can make fresh milk sour by adding 2 tsps of lemon juice to it.
= teaspoon
FRENCH
White sauce is creamy, thick and made from milk, flour and butter!
1. Pour 500ml milk into a pan with 50g butter and 50g plain flour. Gently heat the mixture, stirring all the time with a whisk or wooden spoon. 2. The butter will melt and the flour will blend into the milk. As it gets hot, the sauce will thicken – keep stirring! 3. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. 4. Add other flavours like cheese, chopped herbs or mustard and pour over fish or cooked vegetables.
Use this sauce f or cauliflower cheese , you’ll find the re cipe in Borough Mark et’s Cauliflower unit
Tag us! Please tag us in any photos or videos taken while exploring these units.
@boroughmarket #marketexplorers
© Borough Market 2020
This unit is part of Borough Market’s Market Explorers series, helping primary school children discover more about the produce sold in the Market. Each booklet looks at a specific ingredient from field to fork, and has been devised in collaboration with children’s cooking authors and TV consultants Sally Brown and Kate Morris – the duo behind CBeebies ‘i can cook’ and ‘My World Kitchen’.