[Sca-cooks] scalding milk

[Gretchen Beck]

--On Thursday, May 31, 2007 6:23 PM -0400 "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus 
Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net> wrote:

>
> On May 31, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Alexandria Doyle wrote:
>
>> What about in bread or sweet yeast dough type receipts from ye old
>> family heirloom cookbook?
>
> I wonder if, in the case of yeast doughs, it's basically to sterilize
> the milk so weird bacteria, unexpected yeast strains, or odd flavors
> in general don't propagate over the time of proofing.
>
>> Use to do it all the time because the recipe said so... now it's a
>> step I skip, or shorten to warming the milk so it's not ice cold...
>
> It's probably less of an issue for us today, but perhaps it matters.

Found this at <http://www.pgacon.com/KitchenMyths.htm>

You must scald milk before using it in certain recipes

This myth has some basis in fact. Raw milk (milk that has not been 
pasteurized) contains enzymes that can interfere with the thickening action 
of milk and the rising of bread. The scalding destroys these enzymes. 
Today, almost all the milk that is sold has been pasteurized, a process of 
heating the milk to destroy bacteria. This has the same effect as scalding 
the milk, so by the time you buy the milk those nasty enzymes are already 
gone. Unless you milk your own cow, you can skip the scalding.

Scalding can however be beneficial if you are making yogurt or other 
cultured milk products. Even pasteurized milk contains some bacteria, and 
they can compete with the yogurt culture and affect the result. By heating 
milk to 180 degrees you eliminate most of these other organisms and give 
the desirable culture bacterial a clean slate to work with.

Source: Kitchen Science, Revised Edition by Howard Hillman. 
Houghton-Mifflin, 1989.

toodles, margaret