Why don’t we consume dairy products from mammals that aren’t cows?
Walk down a dairy aisle and you may start to notice how little we’ve done with the whole concept. Worldwide, there are about 6,000 mammal species, each with its own unique milk, but Americans get at least 97 percent of all our dairy products from one animal. (That would be the cow.) Even at my localWhole Foods, purveyors of exotica like shad roe and that kombucha stuff, there was only a single brand of goat’s milk. “EASY TO DIGEST!” reads the desperate carton.
Over at the cheese counter, the situation was a little better. Sheep’s milk made a decent showing. But was that it?
“There’s a buffalo-milk mozzarella over in the refrigerator section, but yeah,” the cheesemonger told me. “I know a chef who’s trying to make a pig’s-milk cheese. I’m not sure how that’s going.”
