After a while, the foam loses its suppleness and becomes somewhat dry and stiff. Produces more foam than whole milk does, with somewhat larger bubbles, a firmer consistency and a neutral taste. The rich, creamy taste is excellent and the foam's consistency tends to become firmer as you are drinking the coffee. Produces foam that is softer, creamier and thicker than skim milk foam. If you can't pick a favourite, you might want to consider 2% milk, a nice compromise between volume and smoothness. The real difference between the two foams was their smoothness and taste, which basically comes down to personal preference. This is significant because ideally the foam should be present right up until you finish drinking your coffee. Both foams were also quite stable-meaning they didn't disappear too quickly. Our findings?Both types of milk gave great results, producing an abundance of foam, with skim milk yielding slightly more foam than whole milk. Rather than using the steam wand of an espresso machine (subject to variations in temperature and technique) we used an electric frother (Nespresso Aeroccino) under identical conditions for both types of milk, and took photos of the foam a few minutes after it was made. We decided to put whole milk and skim milk to the test to see which one made the better foam. Skim milk,for its part, produces an abundance of foam, but the consistency is less supple than whole milk foam.It's the fat globules present in whole milk and 2% that give this foam its suppleness. It's the preferred choice of baristas who practice latte art, creating clever pictures using the flowing foam as their canvas. Whole milk produces a soft and supple foam that flows easily on the surface of your coffee.It is not the quantity so much as the quality of the foam that will vary greatly from one type of milk to another. All forms of milk can produce foam, regardless of their fat content. Unlike the fat in whipping cream, the fat contained in milk doesn't contribute to the formation of foam as such. In other words, when milk refuses to froth, there's not much you can do about it-other than hope that your next litre of milk will yield better results. Also keep in mind that fresh milk usually froths better than milk that's been refrigerated for several days. It is critical to always store milk in the refrigerator at 40☌ (4☌). At home, lipolysis can also occur when milk has been improperly stored. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, including the way in which the dairy cows are fed, the phase in their lactation cycle, poor weather conditions and even the technique used to chill the raw milk at the farm. Part of the explanation is the presence of free fatty acids, monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are compounds that form when enzymes or bacteria attack the milk fat in a reaction called "lipolysis." If these new compounds are too numerous, they will cause the foam bubbles to burst. This is not only frustrating but mystifying. Why does milk sometimes refuse to froth?Įven if you always use the same kind of milk or the same technique, sometimes the milk simply does not cooperate, forming foam that disappears in seconds. Skim milk, therefore, tends to produce more foam than fattier milk does. However, they do help to explain why we don't always get the same quality or the same quantity of foam for our coffee from one milk carton to the next. Unfortunately, these differences in protein content don't appear in the Nutrition Facts tables, since they are minimal and the numbers are rounded off. This might explain differences observed among various brands of milk. At the processing plant, a filtering process (such as micro-filtration or ultra-filtration) can also slightly reduce protein content compared to unfiltered milk. In summer, for instance, milk contains less protein than milk produced in winter due to changes in the feeding of the dairy cows. Sometimes, protein content can vary slightly depending on the time of year and how the milk is processed. This is why, from one type of milk to another, even a slight difference in protein content can have a dramatic influence on the amount of foam produced.įor example, a quick look at the protein content of different types of cow’s milk (see the chart) shows that skim milk and partially skimmed milk (1% m.f.) have a somewhat higher protein content than 2% and whole milk. On average, cow’s milk has a protein content of 3.325%, which is very low. *Values derived from food composition tables and/or Nutrition Facts tables
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