[Sca-cooks] butter from almond milk?

[Karstyl]

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> On May 22, 2007, at 7:33 AM, Tasha wrote:
>
>   
>> I've previously made and used almond milk a few
>> times and was intrigued to find a web site that
>> said it could be churned into butter but I can't
>> find instructions for making it. I've
>> successfully made butter before with an electric
>> mixer and I tried to do the same with the almond
>> milk but all I got was frothy almond milk. How is
>> butter made from almond milk?
>>
>> Eydís
>> (finally making her first post)
>>     
>
> Hello, Eydís!
>
>  From what I can see, the process for making "butter" from almond  
> milk is probably  more like making cheese from milk than it is like  
> making butter from milk or cream or grinding "butter" from nuts.
>
> *Snip a couple or recipes*
> In both cases you're mixing almond milk with acid after contriving to  
> warm up the aggregate mass, presumably to help the curdling process,  
> then draining off the clear whey. In the second recipe you're  
> chilling the end product before serving to firm it up, perhaps to  
> make the illusion more successful.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> Adamantius
>   
I guess I will de-lurk on this thread, as it was stared by someone doing 
the same.  I have made this, and it worked rather well.  I got the 
almond milk boiling, added lemon juice (any acid should work, lemon 
juice was the one I had on hand,) I think I used about 1Tbs for a quart, 
boiled it for a while longer, maybe 10 min. or so.  I then drained it 
thru muslin, it took a while to drip, the curds are small and would go 
right through a big weave or a strainer, but they did plug up the muslin 
some.  I had to wring it to get the last of the liquid out (a press 
would also work, but I don't have one.)  Fresh and room temp it was soft 
and creamy with a light almond taste, after it was chilled the texture 
was like a fine-grained ricotta.  It was very yummy on bread.  Some of 
the period recipes call for adding rose water, which would go very well.

A few points:
I would make sure the almond milk was well-strained before hand or it 
could get grainy, I used the same cloth to strain the milk and cheese.
It does not melt like cheese.
It does brown a bit, but not bubbly like cheese, more like it has a 
browned crust.
Rennet does not work, and annoys the housemates when left out overnight.
Just boiling the milk thickens it some, but it does not curdle the same, 
I am not sure you could get a cheese-like product out of it.  But it is 
yummy with chick-peas.
The quart of milk got me about 1.5 cups of cheese, but this is from 
memory so the amounts are an estimate.


Reyni-Hrefna