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It is odd that dairy products and eggs are often together like brothers and sisters, even
though the animals that produce them are completely unrelated. Maybe it is because they behave
similarly over heat and they are both essential food items in any western cuisine. It is also true
that they are two of the most complete, most nutritious foods there are. But why did the milkman
deliver both dairy and eggs in the old days? Why not dairy and bread, for instance? It probably
stems from the historic practice of the farm house-wife being responsible for the milking of the
dairy animals and collecting the eggs, but also responsible for marketing the extra.
In most societies today, cow and goat milk are the basis of dairy products. Since nature
intended milk to be the full nutrition for the animal infant, it contains everything necessary for
both growth and maintenance of health. Eggs are similar in this respect—they provide complete
need of nutrients and energy. Both having wholesome qualities make milk and eggs siblings.
UNSCRAMBLING DAIRY
Whether you live to eat or eat to live, you start your life being passionate about milk,
your mother’s milk. For most people in America this passion for dairy products continues into
adulthood. No matter how basic or complex the cooking habits of a household, the refrigerator is
likely to contain a dairy product or two. Cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, milk, if nothing else,
there is a carton of ice cream in the freezer. Most of the Asian and African traditional cuisines,
however, eliminate dairy products from the menu soon after babies are ready for solid food. In
fact, many members of these cultures have a lactose intolerance. Two exceptions are the
extensive use of yogurt in Northern Indian cooking and dairy products in many Middle-Eastern
cuisines. As you travel east towards Southeast Asia, China and Japan, dairy products become the
exception.
How it all Began
The foundation for all dairy products is the basic dairy food, milk. Our ancestors gained
milk from the animals they domesticated, first from sheep in the Middle-East 9000 years ago,
then from goats 7500 years ago and finally from wild cattle, the first domesticated bovines in
Asia, 6500 years ago. We have been using milk or dairy products as food continuously ever
since.
Dairy cows first immigrated to America (to Virginia) in 1611, nine years before the
Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower. That makes cows more native than most families we know.
Back in the 1800s people had their own cows, and they always had fresh milk available,
sometimes still warm from the source. All you had to do was milk the cow regularly and store
the milk in a cool place. Raw milk spoils fast without refrigeration, so in the first two centuries
Americans had milk during the warmer months of the year only if they owned a goat or a cow.
For their continuous supply, even city families often kept a cow or a goat.
The primitive method of getting milk from a cow or any other animal was to squeeze it
out from the teats by hand—milking each animal twice a day. As people began collecting more
and more in cities, farmers started small dairy farms and milk a whole herd twice a day, then
delivering it from house to house in horse-drawn carts. By the 1940s, people had milk delivered
to their doorsteps several times a week by milk delivery trucks. You still had to remember to
play © erdosh 214
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