FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

at Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:46:22 GMT in >,
(Bob (this one)) wrote :

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> This recipe calls for sour milk - which is literally that - milk
>> that's gone sour. Ordinary "pasteurized" milk will go sour (usually
>> about 1 week past expiration) but "ultra-pasteurized" milk (the stuff
>> with expiration dates freakishly far out) will not go sour, so make
>> sure your milk says "pasteurized" on it. Also UHT milk (the stuff that
>> they can keep on unrefrigerated grocery shelves) doesn't go sour. This
>> is a good way to use up milk that you accidentally left around a
>> little too long.
>
>What do you mean by "sour?"

Sour in this case means that distinctive, sour but not rotten smell of milk
that's soured, but not completely spoiled. When spoiled, milk tends to lump
up and develop a cheesey, rotten smell in addition to the sour one. But
sour milk looks like fresh milk and tastes "cleanly" sour.

>All these milks will spoil and smell and taste sour in time.

UP and UHT milk tend to go straight from non-sour to completely spoiled.
There's no window where the taste is straightforwardly sour. It doesn't
help that the cooked-milk taste of these milks give them somewhat of an
"off" taste to begin with.

>Milk has traditionally been soured by adding acids like vinegar or
>lemon juice beyond any bacterial souring.

I agree that this is a common way of making milk sour. It's just not what
I'm specifying in this recipe. I think that would be too aggressive. The
resultant cornbread of this recipe tastes somewhat sweet - so that the
amount of acid in the milk is just enough to react with the soda. If it had
added vinegar or lemon juice, I think it would instead taste a little sour,
perhaps harsh.

>at Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:12:31 GMT in
>,
lid (Scott) wrote :
>Wouldn't buttermilk work?

I made the same recipe with buttermilk and the results were not as good.
The taste wasn't nearly as pleasantly sweet, instead, it was flat and
bland. It didn't have the richness, either, of that made with sour milk.
Now, the cornbread made with buttermilk is certainly acceptable, it just
didn't achieve the height of perfection the one made with the sour milk
did.

I recognise some people probably have misgivings about deliberately letting
milk go sour and then using it, as opposed to using a product made sour
under controlled circumstances at a plant. I don't deny that from a safety
POV there's surely somewhat more risk in this method than in others.
However, it's baked at a high temperature, and allowing milk to go sour is
an ancient practice so undoubtedly it was safe enough in the past not to
cause widespread illness. If you feel it's not worth whatever risk you
choose to assign, by all means, don't make it that way.
--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)