[Sca-cooks] Almond milk question

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

You're going to blanch, squib (my word for squishing all the skins off of
your newly blanched almonds), then grind - I do this in a food processor or
blender, but you can do it in a big mortar and pestle if you're game, adding
water as you grind.  Then you will strain the ground almonds through a
coarse strainer, use the refuse and more water and grind again.  1 pound of
almonds will yield about 1 gallon of milk, and you are adding water to
accomplish that.  When you have watered, ground and strained all of the
almonds 4-6 times, the almond waste tastes like sawdust, all the flavor,
oil, and some solids are in the fluid.  I know some folks that use the
leftovers in soap for a nice exfoliant, but they aren't good for much else
that I know of.  If you are going on to almond 'butter' or 'cheese', you
will boil the milk and then pour it through a cheesecloth.  The fluid that
drains out is clearer (like whey), and the residue in the cloth will clump
together when squeezed like a soft cream cheese or farmer's cheese.
Does that answer your question?
Christianna


-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of AEllin Olafs dotter
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 5:11 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Almond milk question


So I'm finally trying this. Working with a recipe that blithely tells me
to take my good almond milk...

Do I strain it first? I'm then going to be thickening it, and draining
it, and using everything left in the cloth... but I'm not sure if
"everything" includes the suspended solids or not. I do know I should
blanch the almonds first, so I don't have any peel, which suggests I
don't strain? I was originally assuming that to get milk, I would - but
now I'm not sure.

AEllin

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