Name: Peptonized Milk
Ingredients: 20 grains bicarbonate of soda; 5 grains pancreatine; 1 pint milk

Peptonized Milk

Ingredients

20 grains bicarbonate of soda
5 grains pancreatine
1 pint milk

Directions

Prepare the enzyme mixture

Dissolve ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda in ¾ cup tepid water.
Add ¼ teaspoon pancreatin and let stand for 15 minutes.

Combine with warm milk

Heat 1 pint of milk to 98°F (37°C).
Combine the milk with the mixture and place in a bottle.
Cork the bottle with absorbent cotton.

Incubate and chill

Place the bottle in a temperature of 75°F (24°C) for 30 minutes.
Cool quickly and let stand on ice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Milk: Serves as the base whose proteins and fats the enzyme breaks down.
Pancreatin: Pancreatic enzymes that break down milk proteins and fats, partly predigesting the milk.
Bicarbonate of soda: Makes the mixture mildly alkaline, a pH range in which pancreatic enzymes work well.

The step that matters

Holding the milk at 75°F for 30 minutes. Enzyme activity depends on temperature: warm enough to keep pancreatin working, but not so hot that it is weakened or destroyed. Cooling promptly stops further breakdown, so the timing controls how far the milk is predigested.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.