Milk Punch: The Topic

[Danne]

I hope my bump of this topic is ok.

I've been trying to make (clear) Milk Punch 3 times now, atm I'm trying out Benjamin Franklins recipe from 1763. I've scaled it down so my recipe is:

7 cl Brandy
½ Lemon zest

2,5 cl Lemon juice

5 cl Water

11 gr Sugar

3,5 cl Milk

Steep the peel in brandy for 24h and discard, mix brandy, juice, water and dissolve the sugar, boil the milk and pour it in. Let sit for 1 hour and then strain the curds. And it should come out clear, right?

Not mine tho, mine's cloudy, the last batch I made I strained 3 times through coffeefilters. I'm currently waiting to see if the solids will sink so that I can decant a clear liquid.

I've tried to let the milk curdle both longer and shorter time, I've done some experiments with lemon to milk ratios but I haven't got the clear result I've seen on pictures.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

How are you zesting your lemons? Are you getting quite a bit of pith with the zest, or just yellow? I ask because the pith will add extra pectin to the mix, which could be a culprit in the clouding issue rather than the milk.

[Danne]

Just zest, no pith.

The milks i've tried are regular 3% fat, 3% unhomogeniseded and I'm trying to find unpasteurized.
But I don't think the mils the issue since I've never seen it mentioned in new recipes.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

It might be the lemon juice that's the culprit, then. Are you pressing fresh? And are you straining out all of the pulp using a tea strainer? That's another thing that can cause cloudiness. If it's not that, then I'm not sure what's happening.

[Kerry Beal]

I wonder if the dilution of the alcohol might be resulting in the precipitation of the essential oils from the lemon. Could you try adding a touch of full strength brandy to a sample of your punch and see if it clears?

[Danne]

The Cognac I use is at 40%. Don't think it's possible to get stronger than that here in Sweden.

I'm pressing the juice fresh, but I don't strain it until I strain the milk solids.

I don't think it's from the lemonoils but some milk particles that I can't strain.

Sure I can go through the long way and use agar agar but I shouldn't be needing to do that.

[Danne]

Ok I let my Punch stand for a couple of days, there where almost no sediment. So I went to my local brewshop an bought some Isinglass, now it's crystal clear.

It's very frustrating that I can't get the Punch clear by it self. If anyone has some experience with this, pleas help me out.

[Keith Orr]

I've seen some other old milk punch recipes that call for isinglass. It's probably the way to go if you want to cellar some of your milk punch. Another thing that might help is being very gentle with the mixture after you combine the ingredients so you don't break up the curds and put more particles into suspension.