In their roots, both milk and dairy recall
the physical effort it once took to obtain
milk and transform it by hand. Milk comes
from an Indo-European root that meant
both “milk” and “to rub off,” the
connection perhaps being the stroking
necessary to squeeze milk from the teat. In
medieval times, dairy was originally dey-
ery, meaning the room in which the dey, or
woman servant, made milk into butter and
cheese. Dey in turn came from a root
meaning “to knead bread” (lady shares this
root) — perhaps a reflection not only of
the servant’s several duties, but also of the
kneading required to squeeze buttermilk
out of butter (p. 34) and sometimes the
whey out of cheese.
Over the last few decades, however, the
idealized portrait of milk has become more
shaded. We’ve learned that the balance of
nutrients in cow’s milk doesn’t meet the
needs of human infants, that most adult
barry
(Barry)
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