Well, I'm heading back up to school next Tuesday, so I should get some more posts done in about a week. For now, here's a random fact from Scientific American:
Ever wonder why Europeans don't refrigerate their milk? The answer is both obvious and less offensive than you think!
According to SciAm, some organic and most European (boxed and unrefrigerated) milk is pasteurized differently than "regular" American milk. While the milk I drink is pasteurized using a fairly lame 145F for 30 minutes or 160F for 15 seconds cycle, there is another level called Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization.
UHT heats the milk to 280F (well above the boiling point of water) for a few seconds. I imagine they're using some sort of flash boiling, but I'm not sure. This extreme heat kills almost all the bacteria in the milk, so it can basically sit on the shelf for six months.
For an American, this sounds pretty sketchy, but the milk probably contains less bacteria than my refridgerated milk. So why not use UHT on all milk products?
SciAm explains that "UHT sweetens the flavor of milk by burning, or caramelizing, some of its sugars", which is apparently not the taste Americans are accustomed to. I imagine it tastes like a stronger version of when I try to make hot chocolate, but end up heating the milk in the microwave for too long and it begins to bubble.
Funny, because caramelizing is a crucial step for a lot of my cooking. Well, in any case, this should allay any traveler's fears about drinking European milk :)
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