Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Last Egg

brr.fyi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 204 posts

Re: The Last Egg

#31

Post by bitdivision »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between UHT and regular milk. I've tried a few brands in the UK, and there's a clear difference in tea / coffee, and it's particularly marked if you're drinking milk on its own.

Maybe the UK is lagging behind on UHT? Or I'm just buying the wrong brand.

Re: The Last Egg

#32

Post by thewopr »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

(creds: I was down to McMurdo as a researcher three times)

I suspect this has to do with space and weight constraints, and probably a touch of old-school procurement practices.

In the not-too-distant past, basically everything was flown to south pole station, so weight was at a premium. Powdered milk weights a lot less than UHT milk. Now they do a traverse to the pole with sleds and tractors, so weight is less of an issue, but volume might still be.

On top of that, procurement may be slow to change. If, in fact, weight is no longer a constraint, it might take years for procurement to change to include buying UHT milk.

Re: The Last Egg

#33

Post by thewopr »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #18
jcranmer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. From a prior post [1], the no-flight period for the South pole is ~8 months, which really stretches the shelf life of UHT milk. [1] https://brr.fyi/posts/last-flight-out

If you ignore the "best by" label on UHT milk, it can easily (safely) last 8 months. Especially if you store it at 32/33° F. But more practically, there are different types of containers for UHT milk hermetically sealed to different extents. The more expensive kinds can last years. The US Military says 10 months for "normal" UHT milk stored under "normal" conditions [0]. The more expensive kinds can go much longer. […

I'll also add, most food products down there are "expired" already. When I was down there, it was often a challenge to find the oldest piece of food. I think we found 5 years + beyond the Best By date.

Best by dates for shelf stable/frozen food are often not safety related, so the antarctic program just charges forward with whatever they have.

Re: The Last Egg

#34

Post by cush »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

Most milk is ultrapasteurized and homogenized, making the difference between shelf stable milk pretty unnoticeable. Good cream-top milk is on another plane of reality.

Re: The Last Egg

#36

Post by yamazakiwi »

bitdivision wrote: post #31
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between UHT and regular milk. I've tried a few brands in the UK, and there's a clear difference in tea / coffee, and it's particularly marked if you're drinking milk on its own. Maybe the UK is lagging behind on UHT? Or I'm just buying the wrong brand.

In my personal experience I prefer the taste of UHT over traditional milk. I do however buy UHT from a local dairy.

Re: The Last Egg

#37

Post by lambic »

bitdivision wrote: post #31
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between UHT and regular milk. I've tried a few brands in the UK, and there's a clear difference in tea / coffee, and it's particularly marked if you're drinking milk on its own. Maybe the UK is lagging behind on UHT? Or I'm just buying the wrong brand.

I don't think the UK pasteurizes their milk to the same degree as North America. When I lived in the UK a pint of milk would last a week or so at most, but here in Canada it can last a month.

Re: The Last Egg

#38

Post by MiguelVieira »

thewopr wrote: post #32
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

(creds: I was down to McMurdo as a researcher three times) I suspect this has to do with space and weight constraints, and probably a touch of old-school procurement practices. In the not-too-distant past, basically everything was flown to south pole station, so weight was at a premium. Powdered milk weights a lot less than UHT milk. Now they do a traverse to the pole with sleds and tractors, so weight is less of an…

Whoa I had no idea:

"To reduce the cost and increase the efficiency and reliability of transporting fuel and materials to South Pole Station, USAP established an overland traverse route from McMurdo Station to the South Pole. The traverse route is approximately 1,030 miles long and took several years of route-finding to prove and to mitigate areas with crevassing. This route is traveled by the South Pole Traverse (SPoT), a tractor train that hauls supplies and fuel using specialized sleds. SPoT tractors ascend more than 9,300 feet along the route to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. On average, it takes 52 days for the round trip from McMurdo to Pole and back."

https://www.southpole.aq/activities/station-logistics.html

Re: The Last Egg

#39

Post by DoughnutHole »

bitdivision wrote: post #31
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between UHT and regular milk. I've tried a few brands in the UK, and there's a clear difference in tea / coffee, and it's particularly marked if you're drinking milk on its own. Maybe the UK is lagging behind on UHT? Or I'm just buying the wrong brand.

Coming from drinking Irish milk, American milk already tastes like water. I can understand UHT being interchangeable if the baseline product is already bland.

Re: The Last Egg

#40

Post by kgeist »

JohnMakin wrote: post #16

And people think we're gonna colonize mars. We can't even colonize the south pole, a much more hospitable environment.

You forget indigenous tribes in Siberia, some of them experience -70C without modern technology.
Post reply on HN