I had unpasteurized milk as a child on my Grannies farm. It has a very different taste. We would have to adjust when we went back and forth to town. It would make no difference in cooking though.

I know some people think it is healthier but it surely does not account for the possibilities.

I believe it was primarily TB that caused the general pasteurization of milk. Not the big issue these days which tells you something. Lots of other diseases were eliminated of course.

What's good about it? The taste. The texture.

Growing up, I drank raw milk for years with no ill effect. Warm from the cow. I'd get sent to the cowshed every evening with a pot to fetch some milk for my mother. The aroma was irresistible, so I'd inhale about a third of that pot, then go back to refill it.

Can't stand skimmed commercial milk, so I'm using heavy cream in coffee & tea, as raw milk is not available any more.

A number of popular and well known European cheeses are made using raw milk. One of my grandchildren was conceived and ultimately born while their parents lived in Europe. The doctor gave the pregnant mother-to-be a list of cheeses to avoid.

I believe that in some areas it is still available. I caught a bit of news yesterday and a farmer -raw milk enthusiast said that one must be careful of consuming raw milk. He said that on his dairy farm, all raw (unpasturized) milk is carefully tested.

As some of you might have read, there has been ”bird flu” detected in raw milk in parts of the USA.

An article I skimmed and saved this past week postulated that bird flu could jump to human infection (communicable?) with just a minor mutation. I will try to find that.

PS pasturized milk is often fortified. Can I assume that raw milk is not?

I know that for some reason, pasturized skim milk tastes like a vitamin bottle smells.

Oh hey did people here know that cows can get rabies? I wondered if you could get rabies from raw milk because I knew about cows and rabies due to the infinite curiosity about weird stuff I have but I didn't know if it is pass in milk so I looked it up. Consensus is probably not but.....About 150 cows a year are diagnosed with rabies. Strange but true. Pasteurization fixes the problem

I think e-coli is another issue. I'll stick with my pasteurized milk.

I've drank raw milk but not in decades. DH's mother always kept a cow. When you have a farm and 10 children, you have a milk cow. My fathers cousin and his wife who I loved kept a cow. I can remember milking lessons, and drinking the milk when we stayed there.

It's available here at small dairies but I haven't looked for it or purchased it. Safe? Probably but then our germs may be different these days and quite possibly our handling of food products may be too. I used to enjoy a couple of types of shell fish raw, now I won't touch them unless cooked even if I've harvested them myself. I have no way of knowing what's in the water they've been living in, what may have settled on them from run off from nearby communities.

A friend will go to a favorite seafood bar when he's in a nearby city and order a dozen yearling oysters raw. I can't seem to convince him otherwise. I like yearling oysters a lot, I have some in my refrigerator purchased yesterday right now - they will be thoroughly cooked.

DH and I both drink milk. We purchase only organic and from dairies that are animal welfare certified - both are important to me.

I do not, have never considered it.

The family of one of my uncles-by-marriage ran a dairy farm. His family surely may have consumed raw milk but I don't recall it mentioned. I do recall he requires real butter, not margarine.

I don't drink milk. I never have. I do cook with it. When I was growing up, we had a milk cow....a Brown Swiss/Jersey cross named Cherry, so my family drank raw milk for years, and it never hurt them.

I've kept two milk cows, all years ago. Of course, you get your cow tested regularly for diseases like brucellosis, etc. And I can still get raw milk from someone who keeps a family cow. I do love homemade cottage cheese. But bird flu more than anything else is keeping me from enjoying raw milk. It's in many dairies across the nation, has killed cats drinking the milk, and can be transmitted to people through drinking the milk. So no more raw milk for me, at least for awhile.

Just occurred to me I should have added for those unfamiliar with dairy cattle that commercial milk dairies are virtually always Holsteins, bred for huge milk production not for cream. The cows of choice for the family cow is almost always Guernseys or Jerseys, less milk but much richer, especially from Jerseys. The taste is quite different from Holstein milk.

Also, industrial run dairies feed cows grain in addition to their grazing of grass and in many very large dairies the cows never get to graze. Cows are ruminants; they're designed to turn grass into milk. Grain ruins their digestive systems and though it produces more milk in the short term, it kills them. Most dairy cows in large dairies live only for two lactations before they're worn out. My first milk cow was a Guernsey who was already 15 years old when we got her and lived another 6 years.

A more recent trend in dairying, though certainly not followed by all, are based on New Zealand models where the cows are fully on grass and milked in parlors of a design radically different than the standard American milking parlor. Healthier for the cows, healthier for the consumers, easier on the farmer.

My GF's mom was a dr. and a nutritionist and into organics long before they were a "thing". She would buy raw milk from a local farm for the family. It didn't contain antibiotics and her belief was that pasteurizing killed off a lot of good bacteria, and that they can take 'bad' milk from diseased animals and make it drinkable with the process. Raw milk from healthy cows was better in her view. The milk, of course, was also not homogenized, so if you didn't shake it, you could get the cream off the top.

Another friend was a local farmer with cows and he used to have a rabbi stop before sunset and had to observe him milking the cow by hand so it was completely kosher.

I drank it as a child when I visited my relatives on the farm. My feeling is that I would only drink it if I knew the farmers, the farm and the cows…. but even then probably not. It’s a very rich taste for me, I didn’t care for it.

In this day and age, with all the recalls lately….. what could possibly go wrong?

I have had raw cow's milk and goat's milk. Both were delicious, but I do not think I would drink raw cow's milk now in the U.S. I had it when I was living with a falily in Switzerland 50+ years ago. The goat's milk was from my cousin and if she still had a goat, I would drink that again.

Have never had it.......don't care to. I am a city girl and raw milk was not available growing up. And other than pouring it on cereal, I don't drink milk at all, just use it for cooking.

Like Marilyn, I've never drunk milk, but I grew up with Jersey cows, some of which I was forced to milk, and so my family drank raw milk, but I always hated milk and still do. If I eat something that has milk in it, it upsets my stomach immediately. I do sometimes cook with milk, such as when I make pancakes or waffles, and so I keep dried milk on hand for that - mostly buttermilk.

Tuberculosis is another bacterium that can be carried in milk.

I've never had raw milk and probably will never have the opportunity unless I seek it out.

" I am a city girl and raw milk was not available growing up "

I've always lived in populated areas too. But I seem to recall during the late 50s into the 60s, there was a small family dairy in Glendale, near the Los Feliz/Griffith Park district, (Jessup was maybe the name?) that produced raw milk. I also seem to recall it was one of the last remaining dairies that continued to offer home delivery service, the proverbial "milkman". The majority of its production was pasteurized but they did hold some back to sell raw.

I never drank raw milk but my husband did.

It’s not allowed to be sold in Canada but I think it is available in several USA states.

I don’t think that I would drink it.

My mom grew up a short distance from a dairy farm. Her mom would walkdown and get raw milk, fresh out of the cow. They also grew their own veggies.

Ive never tasted raw milk, but I would under the right circumstances.

I guess I have had raw milk. My husband just informed me that when I first met him, his mother was still milking a cow. ( And with only one hand) Most of her meals were prepared using milk, cream, and butter from that cow. I know I didn’t drink the milk, but I certainly ate her cooking and had cream in my coffee.

I don't think I've ever had raw milk and have been curious why it's suddenly (at least to me) a popular topic of discussion. I never liked drinking milk, though I 've always loved milk products.

I still don't understand the hype.

Oh please, Elmer. Stop being such a jerk. And don't get into an argument with me over dairying or other aspects of farming. I know a great deal more about it than you do. Of course bull cows don't turn grass into milk. Only the females do that. But in dairies, bull calves are always sent to market. They don't live to grow up except for the very few kept to breed, pretty much done by artificial insemination now. Very few people keep dairy bulls, certainly not commercial dairies. The point is that the digestive systems of ruminants, male or female, are not designed to do well with grain. Period.

I had raw milk once. I wasn’t used to it, and since I was a kid I thought it ”tasted funny”.

DH and I were at a doughnut shop in Ohio, and it was the first time I had a fresh-made-to-order doughnut. It came with a carton of milk, which I thought had curdled. They told me no, that was the cream risen to the top and the carton had to be shaken (and in fact, there was text to that effect on the carton). Yum. I imagine it was pasteurized, just not homogenized.

bpath, that’s known as cream-top milk. Some people scoop the cream from the top for their coffee or whatever and use the milk for their cereal.

My grandmother used to have un- homogenized or ”cream top” milk delivered in a glass quart bottle. I was a finnicky kid visiting her from time to time and not used to seeing that cream at the top and disliked putting it on my cereal. She explained that it was the same as the milk I drank at home, but that the cream and milk were separated. She’d shake it up vigorously for me ;)

I'm sitting here laughing at the terms 'male cows' and 'bull cows'. Surely ya'll know better!

I grew up on a farm back in the 40's and 50's. A 120 acre 'family' farm, much different than today's farms. We had an average (for that day and age) sized dairy herd that produced enough milk to supply our family's needs for milk, butter, cream and beef. And to sell to a local dairy. So I grew up on raw milk. And I will never forget when I first tasted pasteurized milk. It was vile! I hated it. Never have learned to like it, and to this day rarely drink it. I've never thought to look for raw milk to purchase. Now I'm wondering if I would like it.

Rusty

I lived for a while in a very tiny rural town and became friends with a family who had a small herd of dairy cows. At the time, I was a hairdresser and I bartered haircuts with different people for lots of things, including raw milk from this family. It took a little getting used to for me to get warm from the cow milk but I loved the cream separating and I could make my own butter. I wouldn't use it now; not knowing the source and with some dangers being in the news makes me more cautious.

I don't care for milk so don't typically buy it except for a recipe here and there. I would never buy or drink it raw. I remember learning about pasteurization in elementary or middle school and do recall that several illnesses like TB and typhoid were spread by milk before pasteurizing became routine. A former co-worker became ill from raw milk several years ago and spent many days in the hospital, though I don't remember the details. Back then, in our area, you had to buy a share in a cow to legally purchase raw milk. Not sure what is legal here today. Even if I liked milk, I would have no interest in drinking it raw!

Small dairy farm raw milk, especially where the health of the cow is valued and monitored, is different than seeking out unpasteurized milk from unknown sources. I have many grievances with factory agriculture but pasteurization is not one.

We need to remember the problems that have been solved and stick with the solution until a better way is found.