The Effect of Milk Washing Pineapple Rum Punch
Posted Dec 31, 2019, 10:40 AM UTC
38342
I’m no mixologist and have never heard of milk washing before this post and it’s interesting! https://www.cooksillustrated.com/science/844-articles/story/the-key-to-crystal-clear-cocktails-milk-really
I’m severely lactose intolerant though—could I drink a milk washed cocktail and not get a stomachache?
18
No, but you could make your own with lactaid.
18
It's worth noting that processing the lactose will change the flavour quite a bit.
The lactose sugar will get split into galactose and glucose, which taste far sweeter than lactose.
8
Hmm, sounds dangerous. I'm no expert but I think we should leave dealing with galactose to the Fantastic Four.
30
It's a new year, believe in yourself and punch the milk that galactose is hiding within.
8
Galactose, The Intolerant!
5
If I take two or three lactaid tablets with the first couple bites/sips of dairy the shart train runs a bit slower. Guess I’d have to do that.
1
I might be wrong, but I think you can do a similar thing with egg whites. Don't quite remember what that chapter said in liquid intelligence.
3
[deleted]
1
[deleted]
1
You could always use coconut cream or some other form of liquid that separates like cows milk as well :)
-4
This process revolves around Casein, which bonds to the tannin in the cocktail, so it wont work with any dairy substitutes that don't contain Casein.
10
What about goat milk?
3
It works pretty well according to the article u/sadhandjobs posted in the comments
3
Goat milk contains lactose.
2
I’ve seen videos of people using lactaid specifically and it worked
1
Lactaid is cow milk.
2
Casein is the protein in cow milk. Coconut milk has another form if protein that also coagulates. It's the proteins in the liquids that help clarify. Casein isn't the secret ingredient, protein is.
0
No you can’t lol
0
Yes you can?
https://punchdrink.com/articles/how-to-clarified-cocktail-recipe-drink-science-super-lyan/
I genuinely don't understand why my previous comment got downvoated, is it because people assume it's not possible and that I was just lying? I was only trying to be helpful.
1
Here is sort of a three stage view of the one I did at Christmas. And here is the final product in a glass.
In the funnel is essentially what the mixture looked like before hand, the measuring cup on the right is after a single filter through, and the drippings in the jar are the final product after 2 passes though the filter (I also put the end product through a coffee filter, but I don't think that made a difference in clarity).
I figured it was not going to work after the first pass since it looked so murky still, but when it started dripping the second time as clear as it did, I got really giddy.
For filtering, I used this Ikea pour over coffee filter which in my opinion does not work well for coffee, but did a perfect job for this. I highly recommend it for a small batch.
As far as a recipe for mine goes, I kind of winged it. It was approximately 3 cups black tea, a cup of tawny port, a cup of rum, some sugar, lemon juice (and zest), orange juice, and a half cup of 2% milk mixed with a bit of whipping cream since I did not have full fat milk. I let it sit 16 hours or so before filtering.
I will be making it again.
Edit to add that it took about 30 minutes to filter twice and achieve that clarity. I made about 1 liter, so more would obviously take longer. Also, as many people here have recommended before, leave the old gunk in the filter when filtering the second time.
4
Really cool to see the multiple stages of clarity. I used a similar recipe a few weeks ago, but I found it to be a bit too sweet. The pineapple flavor was great though, so I'm going to try again with some some adjustment to the amount of sugar.
3
the result is definitely on the sweeter side, adjusting the sugar content would be a good plan
2
If you were to make it again, how much of the sugar would you take off of it?
2
probably 25% less and see how I feel with that. I personally enjoy something more sour than sweet when it comes to a hard drink.
2
Agree with that. I made a batch of a winter bourbon milk punch for a party (ingredients below). It ended smooth but on the tart side. Several people were hoping for sweet, but I loved that it had a little bite.
4 ounces ruby (red) port 8 ounces lime juice 9 ounces lemon juice 7 ounces orange juice 8 dashes Orange Bitters 5 ounces brown sugar 3 ounces white sugar 1 (750 mL) bottle dark rum 1 (750 mL) bottle bourbon 17 ounces water 40 ounces whole milk
2
You can always add sugar after you've clarified the punch. that's the approach I used most recently and it worked great
1
Awesome to see the filtering stages! I wonder if you added some grated nutmeg and/or cassia cinnamon bark or whole or crushed star anise to your final product to recoup some of the spice notes that were lost? Makes for great garnish for sure.
1
I don't understand how you got it so clear. Mine remains somewhere between the first and second glass.
1
I only needed to filter mine once to get that last clear color, but I used a coffee filter in a fine mesh strainer. It went about as fast as a dripping faucet, but it was extremely clear as a result.
2
As another mentioned above, did you make sure to not clear the filter between passes?
1
On top of this, not touching the mixture while it is filtering made a big difference.
I left it overnight to avoid the temptation.
2
[deleted]
1
Recipe:
garnish: grate nutmeg, lemon peel, pineapple chunk
This is the recipe I multiplied to create a 5 litre batch for New Year's Eve. The resulting cocktail is a transparent yellow with strong pineapple notes and a sweet and sour punch, although roughly 18% alcohol it drinks incredibly smoothly even at room temperature. Shaking the cocktail over ice produces a delightful and stable foam (perhaps something from the milk?) and the addition of some Angosturra Bitters elevates the spicy notes while tempering the sweetness.
.
The filtration process took roughly 12 hours for two filtrations. A Pillow case inside of a large colander for a pasta pot was the perfect vessel. I was sceptical after the first filtration that the final product was going to be cloudy but the transition was incredibly clear as soon as the second filtration started.
.
The first punch is delightfully alcoholic in flavour, brutish in comparison to the final result, but a good combination of all of it's constituents and a very easy drink. The milk washed version looses the upfront nature of the alcohol and melds the spices and pineapple together. The result is deceptively easy to drink but perhaps not as spiced as I had hoped.
.
Either way it was a great adventure and my brother and parents have each got a bottle to take to their respective events while I keep the big batch to serve tonight!
.
Happy New Year's Eve!
It’s the pineapple juice
It's also the protein surfactants in the whey from the milk washing. The casein is what curdles and the whey remains. But this whey will break down over time (with no change in flavor) and will lose some of its foaming power.
Yup
Hey, I think I used this exact recipe for Christmas (although I infused it with green tea to make it punch)
I was originally looking at a tea based bunch, with black tea, port and Batavia Arrak. But i had not luck finding the Arrak around where I live.
I did wonder if the tea was a requisite, but i'm assuming the tea gets a bit lost with the milk filtering?
I made one with tea, port and rum for Christmas (I added a description in a separate comment), and I could really taste the tea (in a good way) but others didn't as much. I used Taylor's English Breakfast and brewed it stronger than normal, so that may have been why.
It's such an interesting and complex drink that gets mellowed out during the production, that I think you could vary it in a number of ways and really come up with some interesting results. I'm considering doing one with tequila and lime juice just to see what happens...
Smith and Cross rum is a passable alternative to Batavia Arrack.
We went through the process of online ordering a couple bottles of Batavia Arrack, but it wasn't really worth the cost considering we can get Smith & Cross locally.
I think the tea is essential. The key is brewing tea to the point that it’s too tannic and bitter to drink, then relying on the clarification process to strip out all the rough edges.
The frothing action when shaken is a result of the milk the caseins remain in solution after curdling and caseins are what allow milk to froth in cappuccinos and the like
Nice, a shelf-stable pisco sour could be done this way I guess
It would lose its snappiness but it could be done yes. The milk washing tends to round out and soften sharper flavors. I realize the egg white in a pisco sour has a similar effect but I find it is more pronounced with milk washing and milk washing tends to have a greater effect on the rougher edges of the spirit whereas egg white tends to soften the modifiers