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To Prevent Milk and Butter From Tasting of Turnips

A remedy using saltpetre to prevent milk and butter from tasting of turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Prevent Milk and Butter From Tasting of Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Make the solution

  1. Dissolve saltpetre in boiling water and let it cool.

  2. Pour the cooled mixture into a bottle or jug with a cover.

Add to the milk

  1. Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture to every 4 gallons of milk immediately after bringing it in, stirring well.

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Acts as a preservative that slows bacterial spoilage in the milk.

The step that matters

Adding the mixture right after bringing the milk in. Adding the solution immediately, and stirring it through the whole batch, gets it evenly distributed before bacteria have time to multiply. Delay or uneven mixing leaves parts of the milk less protected.

“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.

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