Re:Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
by cjohnson318 on Monday April 22, 2024 @05:19PM
(#40121058)
What's your milk punch recipe?
Re:Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
by d4mi3n on Monday April 22, 2024 @07:12PM
(#40125355)
I got my first intro to milk punch from How To Drink: https://youtu.be/zr8dtT9siq4?si=akpHbgmLrtIcgXJk
I originally used their spec, but have since learned milk punch is pretty forgiving. It works really well for complex flavors that have a lot of tannins or volatile constituents (tea, wine, citrus, etc). I’ve found good black tea and a deep, sweet port tends to be a winning combination.
Done correctly, the resulting punch is shelf stable. That said, it has a neat trick: since no filtration is perfect, you end up with trace amounts of milk fats in the solution that continue to react with any left over volatiles. This leads to a smoother, rounder flavor over time. The last batch I made with a bergamot tea and port ended up tasting like a fruity, complex boba tea after a couple months of rest.
Re:Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
by ghost-towels on Wednesday April 24, 2024 @01:37AM
(#40140966)
I’d never heard of milk punch, had to look that up. And now I have my own new rabbit hole! Much thanks!
Re:Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?
by d4mi3n on Thursday April 25, 2024 @07:14AM
(#40156014)
Be warned that getting good clarity takes time and persistence if you’re going the coffee filter method. You’ll also get better flavor if you let the solution sit for up to a day before filtering. Enjoy!
Turns out getting particulates out of a solution is a massive, massive industry with a large body of science, literature, and engineering practice behind it.
EDIT: Here's a few wiki entries I found as OK overviews. ChatGPT was handy for figuring out what relevant literature in the field was and terminology I could use to find more pertinent resources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_engineering
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafiltration
3. Food Chemistry: https://www.amazon.com/Fennemas-Food-Chemistry-Srinivasan-Da...
4. Introduction to Food Engineering: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123985309/introductio...
5. Handbook of Food Engineering Practice: https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Food-Engineering-Pract...