This week’s recipe was Dicke Milch, or Thick Milk. It’s a dessert from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (just like last week’s recipe), which is the region of Germany along the Baltic Sea. I had a lot of reservations about eating milk that was left out for 1-2 days, a lot more, in fact, than eating the sweetbread earlier this year. In my cowardice, I quartered the recipe and only left out 250 ml of milk.
Rainer told me that his mom used to make this when they were kids. Well, “make” he says is the wrong word. She’d just stir some sugar into milk that had sat out too long and serve that as dessert. I was still thinking that eating left out milk must be bad for you, but Rainer swears this is how they make yogurt and cheese, so we’ll see.
First, I don’t think they sell unpasteurized milk in the stores here, and I wasn’t interested in running over and asking the farmer in town for a couple squirts, so I just used regular organic whole milk. I set it out Saturday night, and when I went in Sunday morning, it was gone. Rainer thought I’d forgotten to put it away (seriously though, it was covered with clear wrap and set to the side), so he threw it out. I set out another 250ml, and that’s why this post is going up late today. We just had the Dicke Milch after it set out in our kitchen for a day and a half.
In the picture above, you can see how the whey is separating out from the curd. I had a lot of trouble pouring the whey off though, I kept losing the curd too (maybe it hadn’t curdled quite enough? Not sure, it was semi-thick though).
In the end, this is all the Dicke Milch I managed to produce from the 250 ml. As I sprinkled on the sugar, it smelled pretty good and I started wondering if this might actually be tasty. I crumbled on the rye, then stirred, then remembered I needed to take a picture, so this isn’t a pretty finished product like I usually try to get, this is how it looks after being stirred.
It was pretty good. It tasted like sweetened, thick milk. I don’t know if the crumbled rye adds anything to it. I’d probably leave that off in the future, since we don’t normally eat rye and just end up giving the rest of the pack to the ducks. Rainer’s mom didn’t use it, so I don’t think it’s a necessity.
In the end, leaving milk out a couple days won’t kill you (or at least we have all survived so far) and can actually be tasty. Was an interesting experiment, but I also don’t really feel the need to do it again.
Other participants:
- Stephanie at A Greenville Life
Next challenge!
I think we’ll be taking a longer break here. We were gone all last week and now Oliver has bronchitis and isn’t sleeping well (which means mama isn’t sleeping well either and I got to spend the morning at the doctor’s office). I’ll get some recipes translated later this week and post them next Monday and we can start up the Monday after that again.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
good to know that your recipe turned out good. I do think that my technique of “oh – let’s check the milk…” after a couple of days was the wrong method!!! But either way – I think I will pass on this in the future!
My dad used to make this and we had it and liked it. He used unpasturised milk.
You can pull a double layer of cheesecloth tightly over a bowl and pour the milk through it, this help seperating the whey and curd… Just let it stand for a bit, letting it stand long enough will give you a cheese.
Dad didn’t add rye, but we had it with sugar.
My parents remember dicke Milch, but without the rye.
I pass it on…but, if you leave that milk out over night, add a drop or two lemon juice, that will produce quark. Once you can “cut” the milk, you can dump it into a cheesecloth and drain a little bit and have as a result quark. Thats how we make quark in the US since we don’t have it available, or if, very expensive. It’s neat to try that out once, but if I were you, I’d shop Aldi’s or your trusty Edeka for Quark!
Good to learn how quark is made –can’t get that here!
I’ve been making my own yoghurt lately (see borealkitchen.blogspot.com), and I send that thru cheesecloth to separate the whey — works wonderfully well!
.-= borealkraut´s last blog ..Crow Pass Hike =-.
I just can’t get over this, I even left your website and had to come back and comment on it. In order to produce this recipe at some point in history someone has left the milk out too long, saw it about to go completely rotten or already there, then thought “Hm… let’s add some sugar to that and eat it anyway!” I mean, it just boggles. I feel very blessed never to have been that hungry.
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..sad and disturbing =-.
Dicke Milch was very common in most parts of Germany. It was made with unpasteurised milk and will not thicken properly with the modern pasteurised milk. In a magazine they recommended to add a little bit of buttermilk to overcome this problem. It should be made from fresh full-fat milk in a shallow dish, standing one to two days at room temperature and not being moved. It should be chilled before eaten with either sugar or cinnamon and sugar or raisins or whatever you like. It’s said to be very refreshing but not as sour as yoghurt.
Funny, I’ve never eaten this but I will give it a try. Thank you for bringing back old German recipes!
Molly
.-= Molly´s last blog ..Lost Sons & Daughters – Back Again! =-.
Love hearing that other people also either use Dicke milch or remember using it! For us it really was a replacement for yoghurt or once more of the whey had drained, cottage cheese. After all, isn’t most cheeses made of plain old curdled milk??