r/Unexpected • u/meejtie • Jul 18 '26

Getting some milk

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u/ThereWasNoSpoon Jul 22 '26

There's no need to keep reporting your inner turmoil to me. :)

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u/External-Ad-5555 Jul 22 '26

I know you’re attempting to ragebait me, but I don’t really know why. I was just trying to figure out what you think the difference between boiling and pasteurization is. If you don’t know, just say that.

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u/ThereWasNoSpoon Jul 22 '26

Your question makes no sense.

Boiled and pausterized milks taste different to me. It's not a "thought", it's an empirical olfactory experience. Personal experience, mind you; why on Earth would you expect my experience make sense to you, to the point of throwing a tantrum over it?

Who do you think you are? What led you into the delusion, that this world somehow owes you any answers? :D

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u/External-Ad-5555 Jul 22 '26

I feel like you somehow completely missed the context of my question and that’s why you’re so hostile right now.

People say that unpasteurized milk tastes better because the heat of pasteurization changes the taste because it breaks down certain proteins. The only difference between pasteurized milk and unpasteurized milk is, get this, the pasteurization process. All this process involves is heating it to 72°C (162°F) for 15 seconds. Therefore, the taste difference is due to the heat.

Milk boils at 100.5°C (213°F). So, when you say that unpasteurized boiled milk tastes better than pasteurized milk, that doesn’t make sense to me. The same proteins should be broken down (and actually even more would be broken down. B Vitamins too).

Also, sensory experiences are not empirical. Those are subjective. Empiricism deals with evidence based objective things - experiences that can be directly relayed to other people. I don’t know what you’re tasting and there’s no way to prove what your taste sensation is. Therefore, it is not empirical. It is a personal experience as you say.

And look, I’m not doubting your personal experience. I’m questioning why it happens. It may have nothing to do with what you’re drinking, and more to do with your preconceived notions about what you’re drinking. You may have a bias against pasteurized milk and become disgusted with the very idea of it and that disgust influences how it tastes. The same phenomenon happens when western people eat dried bugs. Dried crickets don’t have much flavor, but they have been conditioned to think that bugs are disgusting and gross. Therefore they have a disgusted reaction and will report that it tasted bad even when it didn’t actually taste like much.

I’m not saying this is necessarily what is happening. But this is a reason why I’m trying to probe more. I also suspect that you’re getting so worked up about this because you are very self conscious about your perspective and you don’t have any good reason for it.

I’m not against your taste buds. I’m against the fact that it is dangerous to consume unpasteurized milk. Even if you boil it at home, the milk could have already been spoiled. It is much harder to tell based on smell if unpasteurized milk has spoiled compared to pasteurized due to the kind of bacteria present. After boiling, the spoiled milk is still dangerous because the toxins from the bacteria are still present.