Plant Milk

Plant milk is produced from various oil-containing fruits. The raw materials for preparing plant milk and plant cream are: 1) American nut (Paranuss), fruits of Bertholletia excelsa. 2) Beech nut (Buchenkern), fruits of beech (Fagus silvatica L.); the nuts must be stored in well-ventilated rooms, otherwise they become covered with mold. 3) Walnut (Nuss), fruit of the Persian or English walnut (Juglans regia L.); after being picked from the tree, the nuts must be kept for 3-4 months; during this time they ripen, and their oil content increases; too long storage of nuts leads to rancidity of the oil contained in them. 4) Peanut (Erdnuss), fruits of peanut (Arachis L.); it can be kept in the unshelled form for whole months without spoiling; the kernel extracted from the nut quickly becomes rancid with the formation of 20-25% free fatty acids; it is necessary to remove the brownish shell from the kernel and at the same time extract the seed embryos, since they contain bitter oil that reduces the quality of the products being prepared; during prolonged storage, the fat acquires an unpleasant taste and odor. 5) Cedar nut (Zedernuss), fruits of Siberian cedar (Pinus sibirica, Mayr). 6) Coconut (Cocosnuss); obtained from the palm Cocos nucifera; it consists of a hard shell covering the white fleshy kernel, the central part of which remains undeveloped and contains a milk-like liquid, which serves as a beverage. 7) Hazelnut (Haselnuss), fruits of hazel (Corylus avellana); for preparing milk, ripe fruits are used, otherwise the milk will have an unpleasant taste; to improve the taste, hazelnuts are often subjected to light roasting without removing their shells ('roasted nuts'). 8) Almond (Mandel), fruits of Amygdalus communis; the kernel is covered with a shell of reddish-brown skin, which has an astringent and bitter taste and acts as an irritant to the mucous membranes of the throat and stomach. 9) Sunflower seed, fruits of Helianthus annuus. 10) Soybeans, or soy, seeds of fruits of Glycine hispida, Max. The soybean fruit is black or yellow or green, hairy, flat, somewhat curved; it contains 1-4 bean seeds. For preparing good soy milk, yellow beans should be used. In the preparation of plant milk, a large amount of waste is produced (shells and membranes); from hazelnuts 55-70%, from cedar nuts 60-70%, from beech nuts 35-45% and from sunflower seeds 50-65%. For preparing plant milk, it is first necessary to clean the nuts, beans, seeds from foreign impurities (dirt, sand, leaves, stems, etc.), as well as from unripe and from fruits damaged by parasites. Cleaning is done by sorting, by water, or on special cleaning machines. Next comes sorting and drying of the fruits and (if needed) shelling (crushing) of the kernels from the shells. After cleaning, washing with water is necessary: in certain cases, soaking in running water is used (for example, soybeans are soaked until their volume increases by at least 2.5 times). The removal of the shell is done after scalding with hot water (almonds, American and hazelnuts, etc.) and rolling (for soy after soaking); the presence of seed shell spoils the taste and odor of plant milk; sometimes the shell contains an alkaloid (beech). After being freed from the shells, the kernels (beans, seeds) are ground in mortars, roller mills, etc. The degree of grinding is usually brought to the size of semolina and is done with the addition of a certain amount of water, followed by further dilution with water (for soy at the rate of 1 kg of soy to 7 liters of water). To separate the pulp, the diluted porridge is strained through cloth with subsequent pressing of the remaining mass on a filter press. The strained soy plant milk is boiled for 5-10 minutes with the addition of salt (0.17 g per 1 liter of milk); other types of plant milk are not boiled, but sugar is added to them (almond milk), sometimes alkali and other substances (see below), or nothing is added. On some foreign factories, plant milk is passed through a homogenizer to obtain a more uniform mass. 1. Coconut milk requires no preliminary treatment for its preparation, as it is a ready-made product contained inside the coconut fruit. 2. Almond milk is often prepared at home; according to Strauss, 90 g of sweet almonds, 2 pieces of bitter almonds, 50 g of sugar and 500 cm³ of water are taken. Boil the water with sugar, pour it over the cleaned, finely ground almonds and leave for 1 hour in a cold place, then strain through cloth. In some cases, sugar can be replaced with saccharin. According to Schlesinger, almond milk is prepared as follows: 40 pieces of sweet almonds and 4 pieces of bitter almonds are peeled from the husk, pounded in a mortar with 20 g of sugar into a thin mass; while stirring vigorously, 1 liter of water is added. 3. Soy milk is widely distributed in China and Japan, where there are companies engaged in the preparation of soy milk for many centuries, and they keep the recipes for its preparation in strict secrecy. Soy milk has a specific odor and gives a precipitate (large particles of ground seed) when standing. The color of the milk is pale yellow, the taste is cloying, sweetish, the reaction is weakly acidic. The Sojama-Werke company in Frankfurt am Main prepares patented soy milk for diabetics and for children. By evaporating plant milk, prepared from soy or various nuts, boiled on alkaline water with the addition of sodium carbonate, sodium phosphate, followed by the addition of freshly obtained casein, cleaver, various sugars, one can obtain plant milk that very closely resembles ordinary cow's milk. Such milk is sold under the names: 'Lahmann's plant milk', 'artificial milk', 'Kalfroom', 'Mielline' (patents). The chemical composition of various types of plant milk is given in the table. From it it is seen that the composition of plant milk is very diverse and is subject to rather large fluctuations depending on the raw material and the method of preparation. Due to the high content in plant milk of chemical composition of various types of plant milk (and creams) (in percent). Types of milk and creams « o Ь оэ _ ^m 5 £ a a <p и V н ев K o o и Author >> нч га >> American nuts . . . milk 85.10 2.88 10.70 0.79 | _ 0.52 1.0037 Konig Peanuts . . . cream 3.80 - 37.40 - - 2.60 - 1st Moscow State University Cedar nuts . . . . cream 3.15 15.55 55.97 22.51 0.26 2.56 - Moscow Commercial Institute Coconut . . . milk 93.30 0.52 0.015 - - 0.82 1.0273 Behre . . . . . . . cream 91.37 0.38 0.108 4.42* - 1.12 1.0441 Hammerbacher . . . . . . . cream 95.00 0.13 0.120 3.97** - 0.63 1.0228 Slifce Hazelnuts . . . cream 3.01 14.45 68.07 10.57 1.68 2.22 - Moscow Commercial Institute . . . . . . . cream - 17.10 63.95 - - 2.70 - Mosselprod Almonds . . . milk 87.03 3.31 8.10 1.06 - 0.49 1.0098 Konig . . . . . . . milk extract 35.58 2.92 7.45 49.89* 3.82*** 0.34 - Schweissinger . . . . . . . cream 2.35 22.92 63.34 9.28 0.02 - Moscow Commercial Institute . . . . . . . cream 2.80 - 54.10 - - 3.20 - 1st Moscow State University Palm . . . milk 85.10 3.10 10.70 0.79 - 0.52 - Slovtsov and Zavadsky Sunflower seeds . . . cream 1.63 32.85 47.52 11.53 2.92 3.65 - Moscow Commercial Institute . . . . . . . cream - 23.27 52.31 - - 4.46 - Mosselprod Soybean (Jinanfu, China) milk 90.71 4.22 1.87 2.80 - 0.40 - Mitarevsky - 2.79 1.24 1.13 - 0.33 - . . . (average composition) . . . - 4.50 1.40 2.80 - 0.40 - . . . 'normal' Frankfurt - 3.77 3.36 4.26 - 0.59 - . . . 'normal' for diabetics . . . - 3.77 3.40 1.20 - 0.60 - . . . . . . . 85.93 2.96 3.06 0.57***** 2.48** 0.63 - Remi . . . . . . . 90.53 5.30**** 2.21 1.18 0.78 - 1 Zlatarov and . . . . . . . 58.19, 6.04**** 2.94 1.90 - 0.93 - ' (Trifonov 'Artificial' milk....... 93.981 0.32 . 3.28 2.37* 0.32 Konig 15 49I 4.56 0.75 15.47 131.94* 33.90 51.40* 2.50*** 4.30*** 2.50 3.00 - . S.90l 19.60 ;37.28* 1 - 1.31] - j . 29.21] 8.68 | 23.79 |33.84* i 3.19***. 1.291 - ! * Cane sugar; ** glucose; *** non-nitrogenous substances; **** legumin; ***** starch. Coconut milk contains, according to Behre, P₂O₆ -0.112%, Cl -0.200% of nitrogenous substances, fat, as well as carbohydrates (sugar), its nutritional value is significant, but despite this, plant milk cannot replace cow's milk, because the biological value of plant milk is different and very little studied both from the side of vitamins and the completeness of proteins. The replacement of cow's milk with plant milk now recommended by some in hospital and children's nutrition should not take place (conclusion of the Scientific Medical Council of the People's Commissariat of Health).- According to Fischer, plant milk and cream are easily digested by the gastrointestinal tract, and according to Konig, plant milk is capable of curdling like cow's milk.

The degree of preservation of plant milk under the same conditions is somewhat lower than that of cow's milk. However, plant cream, when stored in a container with a tightly closing lid, does not spoil for months. Due to its high fat content, plant milk easily separates and forms 'cream', so it must be stirred before use; the separated fat layer on top does not indicate spoilage of plant milk. When boiled, plant milk 'foams' just like cow's milk; a foam forms on the surface. Plant milk (except coconut milk) is widely used in confectionery and biscuit production (in the manufacture of candies, fillings, chocolate, caramel, taffy, etc.). Plant milk is also consumed as a standalone beverage, as well as with tea and coffee; it is used to prepare vegetable purees, semolina and other cereals; it can be used for whitening vegetarian dishes, for example, borscht and the like, for pouring fried potatoes in oil, for making sauces and gravies for second courses, etc. The question of the possibility of using soy in children's nutrition is currently under study.