The Complete Milkapedia Guide to Milk

What does Milkapedia mean by "milk"?

In biological terms, milk is the nutrient-rich secretion produced by the mammary glands of female mammals to feed their young. In culinary and cultural practice, the word "milk" has been used for much longer to describe any pale, opaque, water-based liquid extracted from plant matter — from almond preparations mentioned in medieval cookbooks to the coconut milk central to South and Southeast Asian cooking.

Milkapedia documents both. Its scope is intentionally broad: if humans consume something as milk, call it milk, use it in the way milk is used, or if it belongs to a tradition of milk-making from a non-animal source, it belongs here. The goal is not to settle legal or regulatory debates about what "milk" should mean on a product label — it is to document the remarkable variety of things humans have produced, drunk, fermented, and built cuisines around under that name.

The 54 entries in the collection fall into four broad categories. Each has its own logic, its own set of nutritional and culinary characteristics, and its own history.

The four categories

Animal milks — the original

Every animal milk in the Milkapedia collection comes from a female mammal producing milk to feed her offspring. What differs enormously between species — and between breeds within a species — is the composition of that milk.

Cow milk is the world's dominant dairy commodity: the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that cattle account for roughly 80% of all milk produced globally by volume. But cow milk's dominance is a recent and geographically uneven story. Across large parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, goat and buffalo milk are the primary dairy sources. In Central Asia, fermented mare's milk (kumis) sustained entire nomadic civilisations. In the Himalayas, yak milk is still the foundation of the Tibetan butter tea tradition. In the Arctic, reindeer milk — among the richest animal milks known — sustained Sami herders through winters when no other food source was available.

The composition of animal milk reflects the environment and evolutionary pressures of each species. Reindeer milk is extraordinarily high in fat because reindeer calves must gain weight rapidly during a short Arctic summer. Human milk is comparatively low in protein because human infants grow slowly relative to other mammals. Bison milk — contrary to the common assumption about wild animals producing richer milk — is actually lower in fat than typical Holstein cow milk.

Plant milks — the most diverse category

Plant milks are not a modern invention. Almond milk appears in medieval European cookbooks from the 13th century. Horchata de chufa — made from tigernuts — has been produced in Valencia, Spain, for long enough to earn EU Protected Designation of Origin status. Coconut milk has been a cornerstone of South and Southeast Asian cooking for thousands of years. What is new is the commercial scale and the extraordinary variety now available in supermarkets.

The 28 plant milk entries in Milkapedia span five sub-families:

Nut milks

Made by soaking, blending, and straining tree nuts or seeds. The most commercially dominant plant milks — almond and cashew — fall here, alongside more unusual options like macadamia, pistachio, walnut, hazelnut, brazil nut, pecan, pine nut, and peanut (technically a legume, but processed like a nut milk).

Seed milks

Made from oil- or protein-rich seeds. Hemp milk stands out for its omega-3 content that genuinely carries through to the finished beverage. Flax milk is made from cold-pressed oil rather than whole seeds. Sesame milk's calcium reputation comes largely from unhulled seeds — the strained beverage is much lower in calcium than the seeds themselves.

Grain milks

Made from cooked or enzymatically processed grains. Oat milk's sweetness comes from enzymatic breakdown of starches, not added sugar. Rice milk is the most hypoallergenic plant milk base but also has among the highest glycaemic impact of any plant milk tested. Barley milk shares oat milk's beta-glucan interest but with a less developed evidence base at the beverage level.

Legume milks

Made from beans and pulses. Soy milk is the most nutritionally complete plant milk and the closest to cow milk in protein content and amino acid profile. Pea milk uses protein isolate rather than whole blended peas — which is why it can achieve 8g of protein per serving despite peas being much less oily than nuts or seeds.

Other plant milks

Coconut milk is unique in having two completely different identities: the rich, opaque canned product used in cooking (17–24% fat) and the diluted, fortified carton beverage (1–2% fat) are effectively different foods that happen to share a name. Sacha inchi milk comes from a star-shaped Amazonian seed with one of the highest concentrations of plant-based omega-3 ALA of any known food source.

Fermented milks — among the oldest preserved foods

Fermented milks are created when bacteria, yeasts, or a combination of both convert the sugars in milk into acids, alcohols, and other compounds. The process preserves the milk, transforms its flavour, and in many cases creates products that are safe to consume for people who cannot digest fresh milk well.

Yogurt and cultured buttermilk are the most familiar fermented dairy products in the Western world, but they represent only a fraction of fermented milk traditions. Kefir — the most microbially complex fermented milk in the Milkapedia collection — is produced by grains containing up to 50 or more species of bacteria and yeasts simultaneously. Kumis, the ancient fermented mare's milk of the Central Asian steppes, was described by the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck in 1253 and is still produced and consumed today. Viili, a Finnish ropy fermented milk, produces its characteristic stretchy texture from exopolysaccharides secreted by its starter culture, alongside a surface mould (Geotrichum candidum) that gives it a distinct appearance found in few other dairy products anywhere in the world.

One important distinction the Milkapedia collection maintains throughout: traditional fermented milks made at home or regionally often differ substantially from commercial versions sold in supermarkets. The Codex Alimentarius standard CXS 243-2003 defines what may legally be called kefir, kumis, and yogurt in international trade — but traditional preparations vary widely and may meet different cultural expectations than the standardised commercial product.

Processed dairy — milk transformed

Every processed dairy product in the Milkapedia collection begins as liquid milk and is transformed by physical, chemical, or biological processes into something more concentrated, more stable, or more culinarily distinct.

Butter is essentially concentrated milk fat: to produce 1 kg of butter requires approximately 21 litres of whole milk. The fat globules in cow milk rise naturally if left undisturbed; churning breaks the membrane around those globules, causing the fat to coalesce. Ghee takes this further — the milk solids are cooked until browned before being removed, producing the nutty, shelf-stable clarified fat central to South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. The Codex Alimentarius standard for ghee (CXS 280-1973) specifically defines this characteristic cooked flavour as a requirement, distinguishing it from regular clarified butter.

Cheese is the most diverse category of all: the Codex General Standard for Cheese (CXS 283-1978) covers thousands of varieties, from fresh unripened cheeses like ricotta to aged hard cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano. The difference between a litre of cow milk yielding approximately 100g of cheese and a litre of sheep milk yielding approximately 250g comes down to the higher protein and fat content of sheep milk — the same reason that Roquefort, Manchego, and Pecorino Romano are made from sheep milk specifically.

The three concentrated milk products — sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and powdered milk — each represent a different method of extending milk's shelf life. Condensed milk adds sugar as a preservative. Evaporated milk removes approximately 60% of the water through heat. Powdered milk takes removal further, using spray-drying to reduce moisture to around 2–4%.

What makes milk composition vary so much?

One thing the Milkapedia audit made clear is that milk composition is rarely a fixed number — it is a range, and often a wide one. Several factors drive this variation:

Species and breed: Holstein cow milk and Jersey cow milk look quite different in fat and protein despite coming from the same species. Lacaune sheep, bred specifically for dairy production, yield far more milk per lactation than most sheep breeds. Different camel species (dromedary vs. Bactrian) produce milk with measurably different composition.

Lactation stage: Reindeer milk starts at roughly 11% fat at peak lactation and rises toward 20% by late lactation. Llama milk fat values differ substantially between studies — partly because the studies sample different populations at different lactation stages. This is why Milkapedia often gives a range and explains it, rather than citing a single number.

Processing: For plant milks, processing method is often the biggest variable. Commercial flax milk is made from cold-pressed oil, which is why its omega-3 content is high despite straining. Commercial oat milk is enzymatically treated, which produces its natural sweetness. A batch of homemade almond milk and a commercial carton of almond milk can have dramatically different protein and calcium content.

Fortification: Most commercial plant milks are fortified with calcium, vitamins D and B12, and sometimes other nutrients. This is why a carton of oat milk may contain similar calcium to cow milk — not because oats are calcium-rich, but because the manufacturer has added it. Milkapedia distinguishes between nutrients naturally present in the milk and nutrients added through fortification.

Explore the collection

Every entry in the Milkapedia collection includes its overview, nutritional context, primary uses, interesting facts, and sourced references. The guides below go deeper into specific categories:

Sources & methodology

This guide summarises findings from the full Milkapedia entry audit. Key sources that inform specific claims made here:

• FAO — Dairy Production and Products — Basis for global milk production statistics, cattle ~80% share, and species distribution data
• Codex Alimentarius — CXS 243-2003 (Fermented Milks) — Basis for fermented milk definitions and starter culture requirements
• Codex Alimentarius — CXS 206-1999 (General Standard for Dairy Terms) — Basis for dairy product definitions
• PMC — Lauric Acid vs C8/C10 MCTs (2020) — Basis for coconut fat/MCT distinction in the processed dairy section
• All composition figures in this guide are drawn from the individual entry sources listed in each Milkapedia entry page. See individual entries for full citations.