There are a variety of milk-based products available in the store. Just sticking to cow’s milk for the moment, here’s the periodic table of viscous milk products, ordered by decreasing fat content:
- Butter – 81% milk fat. A stick of butter (8 tablespoons) has 97.2 grams of fat (880 calories!), which breaks down into 62% saturated and 25% monosaturated. Trivia: West of the Rockies, butter sticks are 3 1/8″ x 1.5″ x 1.5″.[4]
- Heavy Cream – 36 – 40% milk fat.
- Whipping Cream – 35% milk fat. It’s used to make whipped cream. Obviously.
- Sour Cream – 16 – 21% milk fat. Like buttermilk (see below), except it starts from cream instead of milk. Low-fat sour cream has thickening agents like carageenan or corn starch. (I was surprised at its fat content.)
- Light Cream – 18% milk fat, used for pouring into coffee.[1]
- Half and Half – 10% milk fat, also used for pouring into coffee. Its fat content is insufficient for whipping.
- Evaporated milk – 6.5% or more. Liquid obtained by the partial removal of water (only) from milk[5]. 1 C condensed milk is equivalent to 1 C evaporated milk plus 1 1/2 C sugar.
- Whole Milk – 3.5% milk fat[3]. After drinking skim for a few weeks, this tastes soooooo creamy.
- Yogurt — 3.3% milk fat.
- Lowfat Milk – sold as 2%, 1%, 1/2%. Sometimes it’s fortified with skim milk.
- Skim Milk – Usually “0%,” but it’s technically less than 1/2 gram per cup. Sometimes protein is added, making it more viscous.
- Buttermilk – usually non-fat; “traditional” buttermilk is the tart liquid leftover from churning butter. [2] It can also be made by adding 1 tablespoon white vinegar to 1C low-fat milk, letting it stand for ten minutes.
These amounts are squishy, so your mileage may vary. However, to put the fat content into perspective, a cup and a half of whole milk would be equivalent to a tablespoon of butter. (1.5 cups * 240g/cup * 3.5% fat = 12.6 g fat; 1 Tablespoon butter = 15 g * 0.81 fat = 12.2g fat)
I was curious about the nutritional comparison of the four primary milk sources:[3]
| Source | Protein | Fat | Sugars | Calories per 100g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | 1.1% | 4.2% | 7.0% | 72 kcal |
| Cow | 3.4% | 3.6% | 4.6% | 66 kcal |
| Goat | 3.1% | 3.5% | 4.4% | 60 kcal |
| Sheep | 5.4% | 6.0% | 5.1% | 95 kcal |
Five gallons of milk (42.5 pounds, assuming 8.5 pounds per gallon of milk) will make six pounds of cheese. [6] . It takes 12 pounds of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream.
Sources:
4. “A Better Stick of Butter?”, Cook’s Illustrated (no. 72): 3, 2005
5. “Condensed milk vs. Evaporated Milk,” Slashfood
6. “Cheese Making Illustrated,” David Fankhauser, Ph.D.