Cooking with Milk

Much of the milk that we use in the kitchen disappears into a mixture—a batter or dough, a custard mix or a pudding—whose behavior is largely determined by the other ingredients. The milk serves primarily as a source of moisture, but also contributes flavor, body, sugar that encourages browning, and salts that encourage protein coagulation.

When milk itself is a prominent ingredient—in cream soups, sauces, and scalloped potatoes, or added to hot chocolate, coffee, and tea—it most often calls attention to itself when its proteins coagulate. The skin that forms on the surface of scalded milk, soups, and sauces is a complex of casein, calcium, whey proteins, and trapped fat globules, and results from evaporation of water at the surface and the progressive concentration of proteins there. Skin formation can be minimized by covering the pan or whipping up some foam, both of which minimize evaporation. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pan, the high, dehydrating temperature transmitted from the burner causes a similar concentration of proteins, which stick to the metal and eventually scorch. Wetting the pan with water before adding milk will reduce protein adhesion to the metal; a heavy, evenly conducting pan and a moderate flame help minimize scorching, and a double boiler will prevent it (though it’s more trouble).