Milk & Cream

Milk is one of the most basic of all foods. For infants, mother’s milk constitutes a complete diet, and even for adults, cow’s milk includes many essential nutrients, particularly calcium. Cream is made from the fat part of milk and contains a high proportion of butterfat (or milkfat), usually referred to simply as the “fat” content. Cream was formerly left to rise to the surface of the milk; in today’s commercial process it is separated by centrifuge. Butter is produced from the fat that coalesces when milk or cream is churned; buttermilk is the residue.