Everything about milk

milk is a bit tricky when cooking because it burns easily or boils over; here are a few tips for the most common problems when cooking with milk.

Preventing milk from burning

Butter

To prevent the milk from boiling over, rub the inside rim of the pot with butter before cooking.

Cold water

To prevent the milk from burning, rinse the pot with cold water before cooking.

Ice cubes

You can shock milk with an ice cube; this also prevents the skin from forming.

Milk burned anyway

Burnt milk doesn't always have to be a total loss. Simply add baking sodaand the taste can be restored.

Why does milk boil over anyway?

Various dishes require hot or boiled milk. Even when children are sick, hot milk is a panacea – but getting a pot of hot milk cleanly and without a mishap can certainly be an obstacle. If you take your eyes off it for a moment or are busy with another task, the milk may have already shot over the pot. And this process usually happens faster than you would like. Looking at it or looking away while boiling milk doesn't really help – if it boils over, it simply boils over. But why does milk rise so high?

The culprits are the proteins in the milk, more precisely the whey proteins. When these coagulate at a temperature of around 80° Celsius, a foaming process occurs. Subsequently, the typical milk skin forms, which some adore and others hate. As long as whey proteins remain surrounded by liquid, everything is fine. Only on the surface do the coagulated proteins dry out and clump together with the milk fat.

6 tips to prevent milk from boiling over

1. Those who stir will surely reach their goal. Unfortunately, just watching doesn't make the matter any easier. But diligent stirring and taking the pot off the heat at the right moment are the best tips to prevent milk from boiling over.
2. If you put a spoon in the pot, it is also supposed to prevent boiling over. The spoon supposedly prevents the formation of the milk skin, so that boiling over is apparently prevented.
3. Glass marbles in the pot have the same effect. The glass marbles move at the bottom of the pot during boiling and thus counteract the formation of milk skin. However, if you are afraid that the glass marbles might crack during the boiling process or that glass splinters might come off (which shouldn't actually happen or rarely happens), it is better to play it safe and use marble balls.
4. Have you heard of the milk watcher? This is a slightly curved disc, usually made of porcelain or stainless steel, which causes rattling noises when the milk boils. The boiling point is reached faster in the curvature of the milk watcher, and the resulting water vapor lifts and lowers the disc, creating a typical rattling sound.
5. Why does the tip with the butter help here? Quite simply: the butter on the edge of the pot causes the milk foam to collapse and thus delays the milk from boiling over. The fats in the butter prevent the proteins from binding together.
6. An old housewife's trick states that a pinch of salt or a teaspoon of sugar also prevents milk from boiling over. Which chemical process is involved here is not revealed, nor is there any emphasis on its functionality, but it would definitely be worth a try.

And how can I best remove the boiled-over milk from the stove?

If the mishap has happened, you should remove the milk pot from the stove as quickly as possible and remove the milk residues from the stove. If you wait too long, the milk dries out and the problem becomes even more stubborn. A few splashes of vinegar on the accident site prevent streaks, and the rest of the milk is easier to pick up.

Attention: this tip is not suitable for ceramic hobs.

Read also: Cleaning burnt pots

Image by Janine, meinhaushalt.at