Milking It

a nerd alert and two recipes

image from CNN

People have a lot of feelings about milk. It’s our first food-whether from a bottle or a boob- and despite weaning like all other mammals, humans stay thirsty. We drink it from cows, goats, camels, water buffalo, and yak but in the scope of our time on this planet, it’s a recent addiction. In the approximately 300,000 years of human existence, people have only been consuming dairy milks for about 10,000 years. Widespread lactose tolerance in the dairy-consuming populations of northern Europe only kicked in about 5,000 years ago so there were some farty and deadly years in between. Something else was going on about 5,000 years ago a little farther south in the Middle East: humans domesticated the almond tree. Thus, the great milk wars began. This week we’re looking at a brief history of plant milks, what to look for when buying them, and how to make your own whether you’re in a hurry or have all day. Let’s dive into some food history.

*sounds the Nerd Alert and adjusts fake glasses*

my bff and I dressed as nerds circa 1994, she’s cropped out to protect the innocent

 Plant milks have been around a long time. A form of tiger nut milk, kunnu aya, originated in what is now modern day Nigeria and Mali in approximately 2400 BC. This recipe made it’s way through wars and invasions to Spain where it became known as horchata de chufa thanks to the Moors. Through more invasions, horchata made its way to the Americas where new recipes using rice sprang up throughout Latin America. The first recipes for almond milk appear in Europe in 1100’s and are wildly popular throughout the Middle Ages. Amazake, a fermented rice beverage, has been around in some fashion in China since at least 1000 BC. Soybeans have been cultivated in modern-day China for over 3,000 years and recipes for soy milk date back to at least to the first century AD. Humans have cultivated coconuts for their flesh, water, and milk for millennia. In fact, recent genetic sequencing of Pacific and Indian Ocean coconuts have shown how perfectly the movement of coconut trees all over the world line up with human exploration. All kinds of milk are old as hell but modern tech and changing palettes have caused our options at the market to explode over the last 150 years.

People have been ingesting all kinds of milk for a long time but drinking a glass of dairy milk is very new idea. It wasn’t until the 19^th century that any kind of commercialized dairy trade was possible thanks to advancements in refrigeration, transportation, and pasteurization.

“There was no cow’s milk trade until modern times,” states Anne Mendelson, food journalist and author of the 2008 book, Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages. “In places where people could digest lactose, animal milk was occasionally drunk on its own, but it was more commonly fermented, which made it more digestible and less hospitable to harmful pathogens.

The fake panic over the idea that we’re losing an intrinsically human experience by drinking less dairy milk is just classic revisionist history. Americans, a very dairy loving people, have been consuming less dairy milk every decade for the last 70 years according the USDA. Part of this has been the rise in alternative milks but mostly, we’re just not into drinking glasses of milk anymore. Fluid dairy milk is still at the top of the market, trust that, but more and more people are trying something new to put in their coffee. In 2022, 41% of US households purchased plant-based milks, with 76% repeating those purchases. Almond is still the overwhelming favorite by 70% of people but oat has been steadily climbing over the last 5 years with nearly 30% of people claiming it as their alternative milk of choice. Soy is still hanging on and its high protein content positions it to make a comeback sometime soon. Just wait.

from The Good Place

Almond milk remains my milk of choice. Yes, it takes more water than soy or oat milk to produce but why should that matter? The dairy industry wants us to feel bad about that rather than focus on how much water they use. It takes 15 gallons of water to produce a cup of almond milk but it takes 48 gallons of water to produce the same amount of cow’s milk. That’s the only comparison I care about. Factor in greenhouse gases, deforestation, fertilizers, hormones, and waste runoff and it’s not even close. Another reason I like almond more than oat or other alternative, is oil. So much of the creaminess of oat milks like Oatly and alternative milks like NotMilk comes from industrial seed oils like canola aka rapeseed and sunflower oil. I would rather cook with my oil than drink it in my coffee but that’s just my opinion. A great nondairy milk shouldn’t have a wall of ingredients, added oil, or a ton of thickeners like carrageenan which can upset some people’s stomachs. Look at the label before you buy any of them and see which is the best option at your local market. Less is always more when it comes to milk.

Feeling adventurous? Let’s make our own, first the lazy way and then the fancy way.

Most nut and seed milks are made from soaking the flesh of the items in question, then blending them with water and flavorings, then filtering out all the meat and skins for a creamy finished product. I’ve got a recipe like that for you, and it is so damn good, but I know it’s more work than a lot of people want to do. An easy way to get around all that work is to use a good, creamy nut butter as your base. This lets you make the milk on demand, and you can blend together different kinds of nut or seed butter until you find a mix that you like best, no messy filtering needed. A company is even selling “bases” for these kinds of milk, but don’t be fooled, that’s just butter baby.

Easy, No Soak Nut Milk

Makes about 2 ½ cups

¼ cup almond or cashew butter

2 ¼  cups water

½ teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

1 teaspoon pure maple syrup or your favorite liquid sweetener

Pinch of salt, to taste

Add your nut butter, water, vanilla extract, and sweetener to your blender and run it for at least a minute so that everything gets a chance to mix and get creamy. Taste, adjust the sweetness to your liking, and add a pinch of salt if it needs it. Store in an airtight glass in your fridge. It might separate as it sits, just shake that shit up and the problem is solved. This will last at least a week in the fridge.

The Best Nut Milk

Makes about 6 cups

2 cups raw or lightly toasted nuts like almond, cashew, macadamia, or a mix

5 cups water

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup or your favorite liquid sweetener

Rinse the nuts and stick them in a large jar. Cover with at least 4 inches of water. They’re gonna expand as they soak, so make sure your jar has enough room. Let them soak overnight or for at least 8 hours. Short on time? You can soak them in hot water for 2 hours, but the milk won’t be as creamy.

When the nuts are good and soaked, drain, and rinse them. Throw them into your blender with the 5 cups water, salt, and vanilla and maple syrup if you’re using them. You’ll probably have to do this shit in batches unless you have a massive blender, which I don’t. Let the blender run for at least 1½ minutes because you really want all the nuts broken up and creamy.

Use a clean, old cotton shirt, dish towel, a couple layers of cheese cloth, or an expensive nut milk bag to strain this into whatever you’re gonna store it in. Just pour the milk over whatever you’re using to strain it, carefully gather the corners, and twist until you’ve got this weird nut milk udder. Now squeeze that shit until it feels like you got all the liquid out and you just have a shirt filled with nut pulp. Sexy.

Store the liquid in the fridge and it should keep for a week. It might separate while it sits, but that’s natural. A good shake will have it looking good as new.

How To Milk Recipes

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Thanks for letting me milk it this week. What are your favorite nondairy milks? Which one do you hate the most? Got a great recipe to share with the class? Drop it in the comments. Also, I was interviewed by

MaryJane

for her great newsletter

My Sandwich, My Choice

and I’d love for you guys to check it out. I talk about feminism, what’s new with me, and why I went vegan when I went to college.

Tomorrow, paid subscribers are getting a recipe for a one pot meal that is destined to become a classic: Enchilada Beans. Not on the list? You know how to fix that.

xoxo

Michelle