The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 174

its shelf life.There are three basic methods used to
dothis:
• Regular pasteurized milk has been heated to
161°F for around 20 seconds. This is the
standard for most supermarket milks, which
haveashelflifeofafewweeks.
• Ultra High Temperature pasteurized milk has
been heated much hotter—all the way up to
275°F—for 1 second. It is labeled UHT or
“Ultra-Pasteurized” and has a shelf life of
several months. Many organic milk producers
use this method of pasteurization, as it allows
theirmilkstositinsupermarketdairycasesfor
longer(organicmilkoftendoesn’tsellasquickly
as regular milk). When packed into specially
designed containers, UHT milk can actually
keep,unrefrigerated,formonthsorevenyears.
• Low-Temperature pasteurized milk has been
heldat145°Ffor30minutes.Manysmallfarms
pasteurize their milk with this method, as it
doesn’t produce the “cooked” flavor that UHT
or regular pasteurized milk can have.The label
generally doesn’t indicate whether the milk is
just pasteurized or if it’s been low-temperature
pasteurized, so unless you know the producer,
chancesareit’stheformer.
As far as their cooking qualities go, in most
application,allofthesetypesofmilkwillbehavejust


about the same. For making ricotta, however, the

higherthetemperaturethemilkhasbeencookedto,
the more breakdown you find in its proteins and
sugars. For this reason, UHT milk tends to have a
slightly sweeter flavor (complex carbohydrates are
brokendownintosimpler,sweetersugarsduringthe
pasteurization process). And UHT milks will not
coagulateaswellwhenmakingricotta.Irecommend
standard pasteurized milk, Low-Temperature
pasteurizedmilk,or,ifyoucangetit,rawmilk.