[Sca-cooks] Almond milk cheese

euriol euriol at ptd.net
Tue Jun 17 15:01:25 PDT 2008


Well I did a little more digging around (making cheese, as some may recall,
is still quite new to me) and I found this email from last year... I
thought it worth noting.

So it seems that a fresh type of cheese or butter can be made with an acid,
but that the rennet will not likely work.

Euriol

P.S. I still think it would be neat to do a side by side comparison between
animal milk and almond milk for a fresh cheese.


Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 10:54:13 -0400

From: Karstyl <karstyl at gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] butter from almond milk?

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

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?

>>

>> Eyd?s

>> (finally making her first post)

>

> Hello, Eyd?s!

>

>  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


On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:08:34 -0400, euriol <euriol at ptd.net> wrote:
> Well, I have not attempted it, and I don't have the book handy at work to
> confirm. What I do remember is that it talked about the fat in the almond
> milk reacts in very similar ways as the fat in animal milk. It would be
an
> interesting side by side experiement. However, since the Liber cure
> cocorum
> does have a recipe for Almond Butter that resembles a cheese recipe using
> vinegar I would say that there is some basis to suggest that rennet may
> set
> almond milk. Now I suppose I should order some rennet to test this out.
> 
> Euriol
> 
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:58:26 +1200, Antonia Calvo
> <ladyadele at paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>> euriol wrote:
>>
>>>I was playing and reading on almond milk just last week. You should be
>> able
>>>to take any cheese recipe and just substitue the almond milk for the
>> amount
>>>of milk called for.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> Are you sure?  Does rennet set almond milk?
>>
>> --
>> Antonia di Benedetto Calvo
>>
>> -----------------------------
>> Habeo metrum - musicamque,
>> hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
>> -Georgeus Gershwinus
>> -----------------------------




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