Cooking in milk

[Susanwusan]

I've tried plain boiling peeled and cut potatoes, salted and unsalted, in normal blue top milk.  Each time, the milk curdled.  Will it always curdle because of the potato or is there a way to do it without the curdling?

[chromedome]

Milk curdles when you boil it, full stop (salt accelerates the process, but you can season at the end if necessary).

 

You can heat it slowly to a low simmer (about 180 F) without breaking, though you'll need to go low-and-slow. I'm not sure off the top of my head whether potatoes have enough acidity to affect the result. Also it will tend to stick to the bottom and scorch, so you'll need to stir it a lot. Potentially as the potatoes get cooked-er their starch might stabilize and thicken the milk, allowing for a higher temperature, but you'd have to get to that stage first (and it would exacerbate the risk of sticking/scorching).

 

What's the end result you're trying to achieve? Perhaps someone can suggest a better approach?

[heidih]

Boiling? Low simmer? Temp matters I think. nd for those unfamiliar - blue top? We can google but the the crazy algorithms will send us ads

[lemniscate]

In my area, blue top might mean the color code of the caps on plastic gallons of standard supermarket milk.  Red is whole, blue is 2%, green is 1%, and brown (of course) for chocolate ☺️.   

Edited May 27, 2021 by lemniscate (log)

[Susanwusan]

I sometimes want to change the flavour in a simple way and also add to nutritional value.  I use the drained milk in the soup.  Spot on with the scorching...  I'll try heating the milk first in microwave and then pouring onto potatoes and simmering. 

UK milk top codes (whether foil or plastic tops).

Blue = full fat

Green = semi-skimmed

Red = skimmed

Gold top is from Jersey cows that give higher fat milk and I have seen in recent years a purple top milk in the supermarket, but I don't know what that's about.

[chromedome]

1 minute ago, Susanwusan said:

I sometimes want to change the flavour in a simple way and also add to nutritional value.  I use the drained milk in the soup.  Spot on with the scorching...  I'll try heating the milk first in microwave and then pouring onto potatoes and simmering. 

UK milk top codes (whether foil or plastic tops).

Blue = full fat

Green = semi-skimmed

Red = skimmed

Gold top is from Jersey cows that give higher fat milk and I have seen in recent years a purple top milk in the supermarket, but I don't know what that's about.

Okay, that makes sense.

Over here blue is reduced-fat, which is even more prone to curdling. Full-fat is better. The microwave would work, for sure. So does the milk steamer/frother used to make milky espresso beverages, if you happen to have one of those (and it's pretty quick, on the higher-end machines).

[btbyrd]

Boiling is the problem. You can cook them sous vide, but will want to use a strong bag since you’ll be using higher temps. ChefSteps has a mashed potato recipe where you cook the potatoes in a bag with milk and butter and I’ve had zero problems with it.

[heidih]

Glad I asked cuz here in US we call it blue because it looks blue - the non fat

[lemniscate]

1 hour ago, btbyrd said:

Boiling is the problem. You can cook them sous vide, but will want to use a strong bag since you’ll be using higher temps. ChefSteps has a mashed potato recipe where you cook the potatoes in a bag with milk and butter and I’ve had zero problems with it.

 

This is the way.

[shain]

Some starch slurry mixed before cooking should prevent curdling and will yield a thicker soup.

[weinoo]

I tend to, for mashed, boil the potatoes in water and heat the milk/cream/butter up separately. Then I'll use as much of the potato water as I feel necessary to boost the potato flavor - what works nicely is also cooking a clove or two of garlic along with the potatoes - those also go into the mash.