Ultra-pasteurized Milk for Making Cheese & Dairy

Cheese made from Ultra Pasteurized Milk
Curds do not hold together (no structure)

Ultra-pasteurized Milk (UP) or ultra-high temperature milk (UHT), including milk heated to 275°F or higher for about one second. Milk that has been ultra-pasteurized does not work well in cheesemaking because the proteins have been destabilized. As a result, the calcium in the milk does not bond properly to make a good curd.

Cream and half-and-half are pretty much all ultra-pasteurized now at the grocery store making it difficult to find ways to make dairy products and cheeses at home.

Ultra-pasteurized doesn’t work well for cheese making. Ultra-pasteurized can be used to make some acid coagulated cheeses with ultra pasteurised milk such as buttermilk, ricotta and paneer. But UP milk will never resemble much more than ricotta or small curd cottage cheese. You can also make sour cream and yogurt, but they will not be as thick.

According to https://cheesemaking.com/, you can make sour cream from ultra pasteurized heavy cream, but it was not as thick nor as smooth:

You can use a quart of half and half [to make sour cream] or mix your own from milk and heavy cream. If purchasing half and half, be sure it is not ultra pasteurized.

If you would like to mix your own milk and cream, the cream can be ultra pasteurized, but make sure the milk is not ultra pasteurized.

To make your own mix an example might be: 1 pint of Non-Fat Milk (NOT UP) and 1 pint of heavy cream (~36-40%). The resulting mix would be about 18-20% butterfat. You can vary this blend up or down to suit your taste and needs. Always use heavy cream when blending.

Note: The reason that you can use the Ultra Pasteurized Cream in the blend is that the milk provides the proteins and lactose but the cream only needs to provide the fat portion. Non-UP does work best though even for the cream but sometimes its hard to find.

I ran a few trials to see how the various creams worked and especially to see what issues Ultra Pasteurized cream would bring to the final product.

• High quality heavy cream (pasteurized only) to be blended with pasteurized milk
• High quality local half n half mix (pasteurized only)
• Ultra Pasteurized heavy cream to be blended with pasteurized milk

Note: Heavy cream will make a thicker sour cream and light cream with make a thinner sour cream. So, choose the type of cream based on your desired texture.

My results showed pretty much what I expected. I let them all develop about the same level of acidity.

• The Ultra Pasteurized heavy cream mixed 50/50 with the Pasteurized Whole Milk did form a decent tasting sour cream, but it was not as thick and not quite as smooth as the better quality local cream.
• However it did not take as long (17 hrs) to develop the acid level desired The local Pasteurized Heavy Cream mixed with a great quality Pasteurized Whole Milk, and the Pasteurized Half n Half, produced similar results, with a richer flavor and a much thicker and smoother texture.