How to do raw dairy well
- Laura Wayte
- Apr 2
- 4 min read
We are proud of Creamy Cow Dairy. Here is a rundown of why we love raw dairy, the history of why it's a controversial product, and best practices for us and for you.
At Creamy Cow Dairy, we believe that raw milk is one of the healthiest foods available. It's the original milk that all other products attempt to reproduce. Raw milk has a profile of micro and macronutrients that benefit our bodies and strengthen our immune systems — other milk products, including pasteurized cow's milk, cannot compare. For a detailed comparison, visit https://www.realmilk.com/vitamins-and-minerals/.
It is exactly these beneficial micro and macronutrients that make raw milk prone to spoilage if not kept cold. Like all living foods — sourdough, fermented pickles, yogurt, kefir, and cheese — the population of enzymes and bacteria needs to remain in proper proportion. If the milk gets warm, certain bacteria will proliferate and crowd out others, and if that balance shifts in an uncontrolled way, the results are unpredictable. When making fermented products like yogurt, kefir, or cheese, we deliberately control changes in microbial presence to create a desired outcome. If you are drinking your milk straight rather than culturing it, keeping it cold is the best way to store it and prevent a harmful imbalance of microbes.
The history of pasteurization helps illustrate why refrigeration is so important. There is a good reason producers turned to pasteurization at the turn of the 20th century: cows and their milk were not being handled correctly, and the product was making people sick. The illness came from bacteria that had proliferated due to poor production methods. Industrial food producers of the early 1900s were found to keep animals in poor conditions, feed them inappropriate foods, and run corrupt operations to maximize profits — conditions serious enough to inspire Upton Sinclair to write The Jungle.
It is worth noting that the first places in the US to mandate pasteurization were Chicago (1907) and New York City (1910) — large cities with significant distance between their residents and the farms that supplied them, creating ample opportunity for poor handling and contamination during transport.
"Barns were frequently filthy, and some cows were fed swill left over from whiskey distillation. An 1895 study found that more than one-fourth of 165 herds examined in 17 states harbored tuberculosis. Many distributors were no better. Ten percent of the milk examined by Philadelphia's milk inspector during July and August of 1891 was condemned because it had been adulterated by some additive or diluted with water." — Bryn Nelson, April 2, 2009, Distillations Magazine, Science History Institute
When cows were kept in unsanitary conditions, fed poor fodder, and their milk was not quickly cooled to a safe temperature — and when distributors were handling or even adulterating that milk — there was ample opportunity for pathogens to take hold. This was the environment in which pasteurization was introduced, and it did save lives, particularly among the poor who received government-distributed milk.
But that's no longer the situation. We have learned from those mistakes and we know how to produce it healthfully, even at larger scales, the way it had been done for generations. Today, raw milk is not a controversial product in much of the world and never was. It is legal in France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, England, Ireland, and Wales — and in half of US states as well.
At Creamy Cow, we take great care to ensure healthy lives for our herd and to handle our milk professionally — our safety record is spotless. In 14 years of producing milk, we have never had a customer report illness. We achieve this by keeping our animals as healthy as possible and by handling the milk with meticulous care.
Here are the practices we follow to safely harvest and store our milk:
We feed our cows fresh forage or high-quality organic hay and rotate them across open pastures in the sunlight, which supports strong immune systems and minimizes pests in the fields.
We monitor the herd carefully, washing and maintaining their bodies without the use of antibiotics.
We clean and sanitize each cow's udder, belly, and hindquarters before and after milking.
We use modern dairy equipment to strain milk of any debris.
We use modern dairy equipment to cool milk to under 38°F within 40 minutes of milking.
We store consumer portions in glass.
We sanitize the entire milk house before and after every milking.
We regularly test for pathogens.
We treat our cows with respect — they are calm and relaxed throughout the milking process.
Here's what you can do to maintain the quality of your milk:
Keep it cold. Use a cooler with ice if you won't be home at delivery time. Store raw milk in the refrigerator at 34–42°F, away from the door where temperatures fluctuate.
Use clean containers. Store milk in clean glass jars of 2 quarts or smaller. Plastic lids are preferable to metal, which can rust or degrade over time.
Don't mix. Never combine old milk with new, or cold milk with warm.
Freeze if needed. If you won't use the milk soon, it freezes well. Leave room for expansion, use non-glass containers, and thaw in the refrigerator or a pan of cold water, then shake well before using.
