Almond cream and milk

Ingredients:

• Whole (preferably not blanched) almonds
• Stock, water, white wine or other liquid of choice
• Cornflower
• Salt

• Crush the almonds to a fine paste, using either a pestle and mortar or a nut mill. A blender is another grinding option.
• Cook’s tip: Remember the more almonds you use in proportion to liquid, the thicker and creamier your almond cream will be. It will also be more expensive!
• Boil your chosen liquid. Add a little liquid to the ground almonds to make a thick, smooth cream.
• Leave cream for around 15 minutes to allow the nut fat to be released into the liquid.
• In medieval times the mixture was strained through a finely woven cloth. In today’s kitchen, you can rub the cream through a fine metal sieve to remove any large particles.
• Cook’s tip: a hand blender will chop up the remaining particles very well indeed. You can keep strained almond ‘solids’ to reuse in other recipes.

This almond ‘cream’ may be smooth enough for your purposes. If it is still a little coarse or ‘gritty’, try whisking or blending in a small amount of corn flour (no more than a teaspoon-full at a time) plus a little more liquid. Add a little salt to the mix until you get a perfect taste.

To create almond ‘milk’ from this rather thick ‘cream’, add more liquid until the mixture becomes ‘runny’ enough.

Pictures
Below: Ground almonds in a pestle and mortar
Top right: Almond milk ready to serve, with almonds to decorate
Below right: Shelled almonds

Alternative quick recipe

A much simpler (and possibly more authentic) recipe is suggested by leading food historian, Terence Scully.
Scully's recipe makes about two cups of almond milk with a magnificent taste, texture and aroma. It only takes a few minutes and is much less hassle!

Ingredients:

• One cup of well ground almonds (you can buy perfectly usable ground almond at a supermarket)
• Two cups of water

• Boil water and remove from the heat.
• Pour the ground almond into the water.
• Steep for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Cook’s tip: Do not rush this stage because the ground almond needs time to release its fat content into the hot water.
• Sieve the mixture to remove coarse grains or, for ease, blend mixture in electric blender until coarse grains disappear.
• Leave to cool or use hot as required.

Milk in the Middle Ages

Almond milk was used extensively throughout the Middle Ages. All known cookbooks call for it and it would have been found in every medieval kitchen. The modern cook accurately recreating the taste and textures of medieval food will need to learn how to make almond milk in order to prepare even basic dishes.

Original fourteenth or fifteenth century English recipe for almond milk

"Vurst nim of alemauns & hwyte of heom one pertie, ah hwyte summe hole & and the other do to grinden. Sothen nim the hole alemauns & corf heom to quartes; sothen nim fat broth & swete of porc other of vthur vlehs; temper thin alemauns & sothen drauh out thi milke & sothe do hit in an veyre crouhe."

From "Curye on Englysch", Hieatt & Butler, Oxford University Press, 1985

Cooks in the Middle Ages had no method for keeping fresh milk cool. This made it virtually impossible to keep quantities of animal milk to cook with. Fresh milk tended to be used as soon as it was purchased; either in the same day’s cooking or turned into butter or cheese.

Medieval cooks overcame the dearth of fresh milk by using nut milk made from ground almonds or walnuts. This ‘high fat’ liquid was easy to prepare and could even be churned to produce a kind of butter (almond butter) that, unlike animal butter, did not need salt as a preservative. When made as a thicker liquid, almond milk could also be used as a substitute for cream or eggs in appropriate recipes.

Another reason for the high acceptance of almond milk and butter was that it could be eaten or drunk on ‘lean days’ because it did not offend the church’s ruling about consumption of ‘fat’ products. Other milk and butters were banned on lean days.

How does it taste?

Although almond milk does not taste anything like fresh animal milk, the texture is similar. The taste obviously depends on the liquid used to create the ‘milk’.

Almond milk made with water is very similar in texture to animal milk but tastes nutty and slightly oily. If it is heated and then left for a while to cool it develops a ‘skin’ just like animal milk.

We feel that almond milk is not as palatable as animal milk when drunk ‘straight’ from a glass. It is a very ‘rich’ tasting drink with a different smell. However, it makes a perfectly adequate substitute when used in dishes such as custard and sauces.
Cooks tip: We even tried it on cornflakes and rather successfully in coffee and were surprised by its versatility. It works – up to a point – almost anywhere animal milk might ordinarily be used. Although we think it tastes revolting in tea.