just wondering if you can use raw milk ? not sure how well it would create microfoam with all the proteins in it.

I remember when I was a kid listening to stories told by my nono and nona, how great the coffee was in the old country.
remember my nona saying how sweet and creamy the coffee would be because of using the room temp raw milk and how you had to shake the milk for a while to get the cream on top to mix in.

Once you steam it, it'll no longer be raw.

If you steam it to 161 degrees for 15 seconds, you'll have pasteurized milk...

Ymmv (your milkfat may vary)

ok my machine is up to temp time to try. I had a hard time finding a farmer that was selling raw milk.

wow what a difference, at first stretching the raw milk to 100 deg. volume went up about 1/3 wasnt sure how it would pour,took it to about 135 left it set for 20 sec. almost perfect microfoam. very sweet, on the verge of too sweet.

The diet of dairy cow has a lot to do with it. If is a large fair farmer producing milk for a commercial producer it will likely more consistent then a smaller farmer but its going to vary more than a packaged product. The diet of the dairy cattle effects the taste, I don't think they transfer as much taste as a dairy goat but will vary. My wife suffers from very serious back issues and has arthritis in her spine. She has very unusual diet that helps her a great deal and part of it is raw goats milk. I think the the morning cap is going to get made with a bit of goats milk for test.

I asked the farmer the difference between the cows and the milk. He told me he only milks Jerseys. He said Jerseys produce milk that is consistently more sweet and has a little more milkfat than holstiens which are used for larger commercial milk production. he said his cows and farm are inspected by (I assume) health dept.on a monthly basis.
label has a raw milk warning label on it about pathogens. Read a article searching the internet about baristas using raw milk in comps,said they get the best results out of it if it's preheated to 70 deg and left to cool before frothing

It'll taste better with raw milk, guaranteed.

Sounds like you have a great source. Dairy cows are bred to put the fat in the pail not on the bone. When you look at a picture of a Jerseys compared to a Holstien the Jersey will look more like a bag of bones. I don't know for sure but the bit about it being more sweet maybe due to the higher fat. I am sure you don't have to worry about bessie getting into the garlic patch but if she does you will know it . If fresh raw milk is handled properly from stock that is clean, cared for and fed clean (not much grain if any) is pretty darn low risk. Have a look around his operation and you can get a good idea if things are clean and the milk is handled in a sanitary manor. Pasteurization really only reduces the bad guys and your pretty much pasteurizing it anyway when you steam it like the other poster said. Keep it cold, try to use it up in about 5 or 6 days, and I doubt your raising your risk over commercially produced milk by any great amount. Pasteurization changes the enzymes in the milk which makes it bad news for folks with arthritis or so says my wife. I am wondering if that same change shows up in the micro foam.

Subjectively, I have a hard time believing any of the odd health claims of highly specific narrowed diets to prevent/treat a particular disease or disorder. ( "Eat right for your blood type" etc, sells a lot of books, but makes little scientific sense). Stomach acids break down every protein into small little bits of amino acids prior to being absorbed and utilized to build new tissues.

Allergens aside, your small intestine and the rest of your body can't tell the difference between the structures that came from any specific protein once broken down to their smallest components.

If you're frothing your milk with steam, you're basically flash pasteurizing it. There's not much "raw" about it left.

TomC wrote:If you're frothing your milk with steam, you're basically flash pasteurizing it. There's not much "raw" about it left.

While true, the question was on how raw milk will froth, not if it will stil be raw. (yes, I know I basically said the same thing in my first reply, hush ). Consider how well milk froths after it has already been steamed then allowed to cool. Now think about what pasteurization does.

Also, when selecting raw milk, from a reputable source, you're probably already selecting higher quality for other reasons, so it stands to reason that the overall quality is improved.