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Wine Whey, White
Take half a pint of new milk and dilute it with an equal quantity of hot water; boil both together, and while boiling pour in at the moment two wine-glass-fuls of white wine . A curd will form, which, after the mixture is boiled for two or three minutes, will settle at the bottom of the saucepan. Strain the whey carefully from the curd; it should be perfectly clear. Sugar may be added to please the taste. "Warm white-wine whey promotes perspiration, and hence it is useful in the commencement of some complaints; but taken cold it has a different effect, and often in cases of low fever it is an excellent beverage; also in the early stages of convalescence it is as safe and sufficient a stimulant as can be given."
A two-ingredient invalid drink from the era when the sickroom had its own culinary chapter. It works on simple curdling chemistry: the acid and alcohol in the wine throw the milk casein out of suspension, leaving a clear, faintly sweet whey.
- The measuresHalf a pint imperial is 10 fl oz, so about 1¼ cups of milk and the same again of hot water. A Victorian wine-glass is roughly 2 fl oz, making the two glassfuls about half a cup of wine.
- "New milk"Fresh, unskimmed, unpasteurised milk straight from the dairy. Ordinary whole milk is the right substitute; skimmed milk will still curdle, but gives a leaner result.
- The hinge: pour at the boilThe wine goes in while the liquid is actually boiling, and all at once, as the recipe specifies. Added off the heat or dribbled in, the curd is likelier to form in fine specks that cloud the whey.
- Choose an acidic wineA dry, sharp white curdles most cleanly, since acid does much of the work. Low-acid or off-dry wines may separate more sluggishly.
- Don't boil it longTwo or three minutes, as the recipe says, is enough to let the curd knit and sink. Longer boiling tends to toughen the curd.
- StrainingA fine sieve lined with damp muslin or a coffee filter gives the "perfectly clear" result the book wants. Do not press or stir the curd in the cloth.
- AlcoholSome of the alcohol boils off, but not all of it, and none of it is removed by straining. This is a mildly alcoholic drink.
- YieldMost of the liquid you started with, less the curd, so well over a pint. It separates and turns as it stands, so make it fresh and drink it soon.
- On the medical claimsThe quoted passage is nineteenth-century sickroom doctrine, not information to act on. Treat it as a historical text.
Whey drinks belong to the old branch of cookery written for invalids, in which the kitchen and the sickroom shared a shelf of receipts: beef tea, barley water, gruel, arrowroot, and the various wheys made by curdling milk with wine, ale, vinegar, lemon or rennet. The logic was that a patient who could not manage solid food might still take the thin, nourishing liquid left when the heavy curd was removed — and that a little wine gave what physicians of the day called a "stimulant" without the burden of digestion. The entry reprints the advice with quotation marks around the medical portion, which suggests it was quoted from another authority rather than devised by the compilers. Wine whey is often traced back to eighteenth-century English and Scottish practice, where it was a standard fever drink; by the time this entry was set in type, the recipe was arguably an inherited habit more than a live prescription.