Raw Milk question

[dissevered]

This is a random question and doesn't pertain to ferments, but perhaps someone here knows why.

Normally, the raw milk I have tasted previously would taste similar to pasteurized, but more creamy and full tasting. Also, there would be an obvious separation of the cream from the rest of the milk. A recent batch I purchased has no cream separation and tastes very strong, almost like Parmesan cheese. Its still drinkable, its just strong. All the milk past and present is from the same farm too.

Any thoughts on why this would be?

[Christopher Weeks]

If the cows are pastured, probably some weed came up in the past week that's making the milk taste different. That's one of the things I like about getting our raw milk at the farm. I've never seen milk not produce cream though, that's kind of weird. Maybe it wasn't agitated in the holding tank and you got only milk from below the cream line? If you get it at the dairy, ask them; and tell us what they say!

[Tim Hall]

Christopher's exactly right about all this. What's growing in the pasture can make a big difference in flavor, and because the product is not homogenized...well, it'ssimply not a homgenous product. Also the resident bacteria may have started working to change the flavor. This is how cheese was cultured before anybody knew about culturing the cultures.