In the Middle Ages, the Upper Class Went Nuts for Almond Milk

[chicob]

People insist in considering almond milk (and many other vegetable based milks for that matter) as a mere substitute for cow milk, and not for a kind of food in its own right.

Where I live, with the exception of oat milk, all soy, rice or almond milk comes with tricalcium phosphate and sometimes sugar, some flavour and even vegetable fat. Same for yoghurt.

This tendency to add stuff (particularly sugar and fat) to food is becoming more frequent in bread and other vegetable products that were healthier once.

[jdavis703]

Sure, it's not the same as dairy milk, but I don't get this whole "don't call plant-based milk 'milk'" meme. What about Milkweed, or the white oozing "milt" that comes out of a dandelion stalk? Can those also not be called milk?

Maybe if there was a good word that quickly described what rice, soy, or oat milk was it would be OK. But simply calling them "juice" seems to be even more of a culinary misnomer.

[maxerickson]

Here in the land of corn syrup we have 2 national brands of almond milk that have at least 4 varieties, combining plain or vanilla with sweetened or unsweetened. Similar for other vegetable milks.

They have calcium and thickeners added though.

[emodendroket]

Well, isn't that because the biggest consumers are people who've gone vegan or dairy-free but still want something milk-like?

[ousta]

almond milk is water and almond + sugar

[pacaro]

And currently the dairy industry in Europe is litigating to ensure that only mammalian milk is allowed to be sold as milk, this would appear to going in the face of hundreds of years of history of calling other things milk. I wonder what Milk of Magnesia will have to be renamed to

[gwbas1c]

That happened in the US. Immediately after, "soy milk" became "soymilk" and "almond milk" became "almondmilk."

[tom_mellior]

> And currently the dairy industry in Europe is litigating to ensure that only mammalian milk is allowed to be sold as milk

Not sure what you mean by "currently" and "the dairy industry" and "litigating", but a (the?) relevant case was decided by the ECJ back in June. Press release: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/201... full judgement: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&doc...

For whatever it's worth, the lawsuit was brought by a German society that aims to ensure fair competition by truth in advertising. (Were they bought by the dairy industry? Possible.)

The judgement is clearly based on the definition "The term “milk” shall mean exclusively the normal mammary secretion obtained from one or more milkings without either addition thereto or extraction therefrom." from EU law made by the European Parliament and the Council. (Were they bought by the dairy industry? Possible. But given this sentence that is part of EU law, the court didn't have much choice.)

[dalbasal]

This EU quasi-trademark system for food labeling is such a racket.

I blame champaignians for kicking it off.

[Retric]

I wonder how much of this was related to the risk that Milk killed a lot of people in the Middle Ages.

[coldtea]

With the access to fresh milk from their own farm animals that they had? Why would milk kill "a lot of people in the middle ages"?

Lots of rural communities in Europe lived until the 50s or so not much unlike the middle ages (no fridges, no electricity, farming, etc) and they weren't harmed by their milk at all.

[pjc50]

> Milk killed a lot of people in the Middle Ages

[citation needed]

[myth_drannon]

Do you mean lactose intolerance?

[wvlia5]

Put 1 cup of Almonds and 3 cups of water in a blender, blend, filter and you have almond milk. Substitute Almonds for Peanuts or Coconut and you have Peanut or Coconut Milk. Easy and not expensive.

[tdb7893]

Just fyi to people making almond milk this way is often more expensive than just buying almond milk from the store unless you have a cheap way to buy almonds in bulk.

[dsego]

Don't forget soaking to remove phytic acid.

[sametmax]

Unless you have a very good blender, you won't have the same texture.

[mathw]

Assuming you already have a sufficiently powerful blender, anyway.

[hoytech]

The book "The Lost Art of Real Cooking" by Alabala and Natziger describes how to make what they claim to be medieval-style almond milk and almond butter (apparently quite different from what we buy in stores today).

[Kurtz79]

Interesting article!

In Sicily (especially in the eastern part of the island) almond milk is quite a common beverage, it also makes for a killer "granita".

[lvoudour]

A similar (almost identical) dessert is the Turkish Tavuk Göğsü, which probably implies a common origin for both dishes

[grenoire]

I'd say muhallebi is closer to blancmange than tavuk göğsü, which is literally made from chicken meat.

[erasemus]

Blancmange and rice pudding? Yes, I'm definitely in favour of adding almonds to those delightful desserts.

[empath75]

I’m not a big fan of almond milk in general but it’s quite nice to make oatmeal with.