Moose milk
{{For|the traditional Canadian drink|Moose Milk (cocktail)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}
File:Milkmaid-and-Moose-Cow-hp4080.jpg at the Kostroma Moose Farm in Kostroma Oblast, Russia prepares to milk a moose]]
File:Moose-Machine-Milking-ss87-810.jpg
Moose milk, also known as elk milk, refers to milk produced by moose (Alces alces). Though it is most commonly consumed by moose calves, its production has also been commercialised in Russia and Sweden.
Nutritional content
Moose milk is high in butterfat (10%) and solids (21.5%), according to data collected on Russian moose; research into American moose milk is in a less advanced state than in Russia, but appears to indicate that American moose have even higher concentrations of solids in their milk.{{cite book|title=Deer of the World: Their Evolution Behaviour and Ecology|first=Valerius|last=Geist|publisher=Stackpole Books|date=1998|isbn=0-8117-0496-3|pages=157|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&q=moose|access-date=December 15, 2020|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915195051/https://books.google.com/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&q=moose|url-status=live}} Moose lactate between June and August; conditional on a good supply of high-quality forage, nutrient and fat concentrations in the milk typically increase during the first twenty-five days of lactation, which are considered the peak period; nutrients, fat, and mineral element concentrations decrease for the remainder of the lactation period.{{cite journal|last1=Chalyshev|first1=Aleksandr V.|first2=Larisa P.|last2=Badlo|journal=Alces|date=January 2002|url=http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~arodgers/Alces/Suppl2/Suppl2_41.pdf|title=Nutrient composition of milk from domesticated taiga moose during the lactation period|volume=Supplement 2|pages=41–44|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107222422/http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~arodgers/Alces/Suppl2/Suppl2_41.pdf|archive-date=November 7, 2017}} However, compared to cow milk, moose milk still has much higher levels of aluminium, iron, selenium, and zinc.{{cite journal |last1=Franzmann |first1=Albert W. |last2=Flynn |first2=Arthur |last3=Arneson |first3=Paul D. |title=Moose milk and hair element levels and relationships |journal=Journal of Wildlife Diseases |date=April 1976 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=202–207 |doi=10.7589/0090-3558-12.2.202|pmid=933310|s2cid=37773358 }}
Farming and sale
Moose milk is commercially farmed in Russia; one sanitorium, the Ivan Susanin Sanitorium, even serves moose milk to residents in the belief that it helps them recover from disease or manage chronic illness more effectively.{{cite news|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/1994/12/24/092.html|date=24 December 1994|access-date=2007-08-27|title=Elk's Milk: Good for What Ails You|last=Grocott|first=Jeff|periodical=The Moscow Times}} Some Russian researchers have recommended that moose milk could be used for the prevention of gastroenterological diseases in children, due to its lysozyme activity.{{cite journal|vauthors=Dorofeĭchuk VG, Kelekeeva MM, Makarova IB, Tolkacheva NI |title=[Protective properties of moose's milk and perspectives of its use in pediatric gastroenterology] |language=ru |journal=Vopr Pitan |issue=5 |pages=33–35 |year=1987 |pmid=3439068}}
The Elk House ({{lang|sv|Älgens Hus}}) farm in Bjurholm, Sweden, run by Christer and Ulla Johansson is believed to be the world's only producer of moose cheese. {{as of|2007}}, it had three milk-producing moose, whose milk yielded roughly {{convert|300|kg}} of cheese per year, which sold for about $1,000 ({{inflation|US|1000|2007|fmt=eq}}){{inflation/fn|US}} per kilogram.{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040626/MOOSE26/TPEntertainment/Style|archive-url=https://archive.today/20080107085024/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040626/MOOSE26/TPEntertainment/Style|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 January 2008|date=26 June 2004|access-date=2007-08-27|title=Moose milk makes for unusual cheese|periodical=The Globe and Mail |agency=Associated Press}} A disturbed moose cow's milk dries up, so it can take up to 2 hours of milking in silence to get the full {{convert|2|L|USgal|adj=on}} yield.{{cite news|last=Nobel|first=Carmen|publisher=theStreet.com|title=Moody Moose Make $420 Cheese: Big Spender|url=http://www.thestreet.com/story/10567382/1/moody-moose-make-420-cheese-big-spender.html|date=2009-07-08|access-date=2010-02-07|archive-date=February 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216032111/http://www.thestreet.com/story/10567382/1/moody-moose-make-420-cheese-big-spender.html|url-status=live}} Russian moose researcher Alexander Minaev had also previously tried to make moose cheese, but he stated that, due to the milk's high protein content, the cheese became hard far too quickly. {{as of|2007}}, he was not aware of any attempts to make moose ice cream.{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1313736|work=NPR|date=28 June 2003|access-date=2007-08-27|title=Moose Milking|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915195053/https://www.npr.org/2003/06/28/1313736/moose-milking|url-status=live}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.algenshus.se/ Älgens Hus (Swedish)]/[https://web.archive.org/web/20080306034034/http://www.algenshus.se/indexe.htm Elk House (English)], Christer and Ulla Johansson's farm
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJkqG4IXuaw Moose juice: an alternative to cow's milk?], Russia Today (YouTube)
{{Milk by provenance}}
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