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Milk Whey, Clarified
To six pints of milk add enough rennet to turn it; leave it in a warm place; press out the whey, and strain. Clarify the whey by adding the whites of three eggs and a pinch of cream of tartar. Boil, and filter through paper. Probable cost, 1s. 4d.
A sickroom drink rather than a dish: milk is set with rennet, the curd drained off, and the cloudy whey polished clear with egg white. The hinge is the clarification — the whey must be brought up slowly with the raw whites in it so the coagulating albumen traps the fine solids on its way to the surface.
- Rennet, and how much"Enough rennet to turn it" left the amount to the cook; period liquid essences were commonly used at something on the order of a teaspoonful per quart, though strengths varied. Modern liquid animal or microbial rennet is far more concentrated: a few drops per quart is usual, so follow the strength stated on the bottle. Junket tablets, if you can find them, are the closest domestic descendant.
- Use low-heat pasteurized milkUltra-pasteurized milk will not form a clean curd, so the whey never separates properly. Ordinary pasteurized whole milk works; UHT does not.
- "A warm place"Rennet sets best around 95-100F. A bowl in a switched-off oven with the light on, or a pan sitting in warm water, will hold it. Expect a set in 15-30 minutes; leave it undisturbed until the curd pulls cleanly from the side of the bowl.
- Pressing and strainingCut the set curd, ladle it into a cloth-lined sieve and let it drain rather than squeezing hard — heavy pressure forces curd fines through and makes the clarifying step harder. Six pints of milk gives roughly five pints of whey.
- ClarifyingWhisk the three whites and the pinch of cream of tartar into the cold whey, then heat gently, stirring until it is hot but not yet simmering, and stop stirring. Bring it barely to the boil, hold a minute, then let it settle before straining.
- "Filter through paper"A coffee filter or a double thickness of rinsed muslin in a sieve does the same job. Let it pass by gravity; forcing it clouds the result. The point is a drink as clear as pale cider.
- Cream of tartarUnchanged, and still sold as such — potassium bitartrate. Here it is acid, sharpening the flavour and helping the whites coagulate firmly.
- Cost and yield1s. 4d. covers the ingredients, chiefly the six pints of milk. Serve warm or chilled, sweetened or with lemon.
Whey drinks belong to the long tradition of invalid cookery, which has its place in Victorian and Edwardian household manuals such as Cassell's. Whey is what remains after the casein and most of the fat have been taken out as curd, leaving water, lactose, whey proteins and salts — light, faintly sweet and thought suitable for patients who could not manage milk itself. Clarified versions were valued because the eye was part of the prescription: a clear liquid looked more digestible and less like food to someone with no appetite. The rennet came from a calf's fourth stomach, sold in bottles by chemists and grocers, and the same essence was used domestically for junket and other set milk puddings. Related preparations under the same heading — wine whey, tamarind whey, mustard whey — treated the liquid as a base to carry a flavouring or a medicine, and the practice generally fades from cookbooks as commercial invalid foods took over in the early twentieth century.