When the topic is milk camels, yaks, reindeer, donkeys and horses look on sheepishly. On the other hand, buffaloes, goats and sheep smile, because although milk most often means cow’s milk, it’s milk from the last animals listed that is highly valued, especially in cheese production. Pigs have nothing to say about the matter because although their milk is very similar to human milk it plays absolutely no role in human nutrition.

Milk is healthy: Compared to other forms of nutrition it’s our major source of calcium (which is good for bones, teeth, blood and nerves). Milk protein is especially valuable because of its high proportion of essential amino acids (over 40 percent). One millilitre of cow’s milk contains up to 4.6 billion tiny vitamin-rich and low cholesterol goblets of fat which are easily digested and quickly available. In addition to vitamins A (for healthy skin, the body’s defences and good vision), E (good for the immune system) and K (for strengthening the liver), moo juice also contains a lot of B vitamins for better nerves and more energy. What holds true here is that the less milk is treated, the more it contains. Anyone suffering from lactose intolerance and thus unable to properly digest cow’s milk (about 15 percent of the population of Germany) can turn to goat’s or sheep’s milk as an alternative.

Milk is very versatile: Whether butter, soured or condensed milk, kefir, yoghurt or quark, cream cheese, soft or hard cheese, cream, heavy and normal sour cream, butter or butter oil – without milk none of these would exist and there would be no butter cakes, no rice pudding, no whipping cream and no pancakes, no gratin and no pudding nor cream sauces and cheese fondues.

It’s the milk that does it: Milk and dairy products are not only the ingredients of numerous foods, in its pure form milk is also an extremely flexible kitchen aid: it is able to complement the taste of food, to refine and make things appear richer in content. It also has a balancing and soothing effect when food is too spicy, when there’s too much pepper in the goulash or the salad dressing is overly sour.

It also softens the powerful taste of game, rabbit and mutton, kidney or liver, if these are allowed to soak in whole milk, curdled milk or butter milk overnight prior to cooking. A dash of milk in water being used to boil fish not only makes it more tender, it also reduces the smell.