I was inspired to attempt this recipe after learning about it from Francis Lam who explained it’s Chinese origins and the dish’s simple elegance. The ginger milk curd is made of only three ingredients: milk, sugar, and ginger juice. The ginger juice contains a proteolytic enzyme that denatures the milk proteins to create a fragile gelled dessert. SOLD. But as it often goes with super simple recipes, there’s some real magic involved. I think I’d better go back to wizarding school.
Ginger Milk Curd – No Eggs, No Starch?
This simple dessert is the result of ginger enzymes denaturing milk proteins forming a delicate yet delicious dessert.
Equipment
- stove or microwave
Ingredients
- 200 ml. whole milk
- 2 tsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp. ginger juice freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Grate a 2"-3" piece of fresh ginger. Use a fine-mesh strainer or a piece of cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice. Measure 1 tablespoon into a ceramic bowl.
- Pour the milk into a saucepan. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Heat medium to 176˚F/80˚C.
- Immediately pour the hot milk into the bowl with the ginger juice.
- Wait 10 minutes and serve.
Notes
- Do not stir the hot milk and ginger juice. Doing so will disturb the fragile curd.
- It’s recommended to pour the milk from a height of a few inches to help combine it with the ginger juice.
- Adapted from Red House Spice
- Inspired by Francis Lam’s article.
Nutrition
Calories: 162kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 6gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 87mgPotassium: 264mgSugar: 20gVitamin A: 324IUCalcium: 226mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
You can watch my multiple attempts at this recipe here:
Happy magic milk curd making, lovelies!
Would this work with coconut milk – not sure if the same protein/enzyme reaction would occur?
I haven’t tried coconut milk, but I after all of my regular milk failures my hunch is that coconut milk wouldn’t work.
Hey Emmy! There was a comment on a different tutorial on YouTube saying that old ginger (one that looks dry and dusty) should be used instead of young ginger. I tried old ginger that has been sitting out for a few weeks and it worked so I thought I should let you know 🙂
Ha! I’m so glad it worked for you.:) Lots of people have mentioned using old ginger, so I’ll have to give it a go. Thanks for reporting back with your findings.
And ginger to milk in small bowl make sure to slowly cover entire area of bowl
This looks really similar to lemon posset (and I assume is using the same basic science). Posset generally has you chill the pudding until it sets. That might be worth a try.
Side note, lemon ginger posset is delicious and I highly recommend it. This does make me want to try a full ginger version though.
Hey Emmy!
I wanted to see if it would work and tried a different recipe lol. Surprisingly it did set up into a kinugoshi tofu texture! The issue might’ve been not bringing the milk to 90C before letting it cool back down?
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/ginger-milk-pudding/
A few people have mentioned lemon posset and it sounds lovely. Looks like I’ll have to try it. 🙂
Nice! I’m so glad it worked out for you. Thanks for including the recipe link.
I made this a while back and it also worked for me. Like Charlotte said, the key was using old ginger. The ginger I used was so old it was starting to wrinkle. It was hard to get juice out of it. Worked like a charm!
I also think it might be the fact that you probably used homogenized milk. It isn’t just the fat/protein content and pasteurization that affects milk chemistry, homogenization messes with the whole structure of the proteins that are meant to coagulate. (This is why they have to add carrageenan and other gums to homogenized whipping cream – if you buy cream straight from a dairy that hasn’t homogenized it, you can whip it by hand in a few minutes, no problem). The milk I used was “cream on top” milk, or whole, unhomogenized milk (it was pasteurized). The heating and then cooling thing may also help, because it might help the protein to get into a disorganized state, ready to tangle/coagulate (and then the cooling will make it so it isn’t so hot that it would denature the protein that causes the reaction).
Sometimes on these videos I wish I knew how to give you tips in advance, when I’ve previously struggled with something and know the answer!
Based on the feedback I’ve been getting, old ginger just might be the key…
I use ginger that is really hard and a pale yellow color inside. When the milk in the pot has really small bubbles in the edges, I quickly pour it in the bowl. The bowl has to be on the same table you are going to let it rest on, so you don’t have to move the bowl. The table should not shake when you walk past it, (my grandma walk past mine, and it kind of ruined the curd) Also very important, make sure the white stuff in the ginger juice is completely settled. I notice that the bowl you used the the video is kind of big. Maybe use a smaller bowl and less milk?
I forgot to mention this but you should wait 15 mins instead of 10. Your curd will be less warm but more settled.
I tried soymilk once, didn’t work
I know that a lot of recipes recommend pour from a tall height away from the bowl, but I don’t do that. The reason being that it takes too long. Your curd will settle fast, so you should pour as close as you can get as fast as possible.
Stir the ginger right before adding the milk
Thanks so much for sharing all of your tips. 🙂
Hi, I tried this using whole milk which I overheated by accident, then cooled slightly before adding to (probably slightly too much, definitely old ginger) juice- worked really well, texture similar to set yoghurt/silken tofu?
Alrighty, old ginger seems to be the ticket. Thanks for reporting back with your findings.
https://youtu.be/QIqGeRnLGKk
Emmy watch this recipe! It seems the amount of protein in the milk si also important, hope it helps!
Hey Emmy! I am from Singapore! I just saw your ginger milk curd video and wanted to try it. I googled for another recipe and made mine successfully on first try! I DM-ed you on IG to share my findings and video. Do take a look and let me know if you succeed this time.
Thank you!