The nomads of Central Asia were the ones who first tried out milk. However, they used to drink milk from mares (a female horse) as cows were not yet domesticated. Gradually, the herdsmen learnt to milk sheep, goats, and donkeys soon after 9000 BC.
Cow’s milk was a common drink in Neolithic Britain. Ancient Europeans preferred soured milk. They found that concentrating milk by evaporating it would help to preserve the milk longer. They used different kinds of sweeteners too.
Until 1852, when an American named Gail Borden introduced canned condensed milk for the first time, sweetened milk was not widely accepted. Borden’s canned version gradually caught on, especially with soldiers in the American Civil War.
It was the French biologist Louis Pasteur who introduced the process called pasteurization, a method to kill bacteria in food and drinks especially milk. It’s said that during his investigations into the souring process of wine and beer, Pasteur developed this process.
In 1860 he pasteurized milk for the first time. The process became popular only after 1890s.
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