Story by Melanie Hack. You can find her behind the bar at Melbourne’s Whisky & Alement, follow her @melrosehack or reach her at Melanie.hack98@gmail.com
By now, you’ve all read about and drank milk-clarified cocktails. They’re on every cocktail menu across Australia, and for good reason. They’re delicious! They also happened to have been around for centuries, dating back to 1711, thanks to one Mary Rocket. But like all things, there have been changes and it seems there is a brand new way to clarify. Rewind to early September 2023, and the internet was abuzz. Multiple YouTube channels, Instagram pages, TikTok and Punch magazine all started talking about a ‘new clarification technique, with no acid!’
So what is it, and what does it do?
Simply put – You still follow the same method when making a milk-clarified punch. The difference is using rehydrated milk powder! It miraculously allows you to clarify with zero acids, and if you toast the powder first, it develops a browned butter taste. It can also mean a cheaper and more shelf-stable option. This is pretty huge, in my opinion.
You still follow the same method when making a milk-clarified punch. The difference is using rehydrated milk powder! It miraculously allows you to clarify with zero acids, and if you toast the powder first, it develops a browned butter taste.
Who created it?
I discovered this technique after reading the Punch article ‘smooth as butter’. It’s a technique developed by Daniel Villa (@cocktailcavalier). So far, I’d only read positive things, so I investigated this new technique myself.
Here’s his original recipe:
Smooth as Butter
Yield: one 750-millilitre bottle (about eight 90ml servings)
240g rehydrated toasted whole milk (see Editor’s Note)
270g reposado tequila, preferably El Tesoro
180g amontillado sherry
90g Pedro Ximénez sherry
60g mezcal, preferably Ilegal Joven
45g Bénédictine
45g Cynar
1/2 teaspoon bitters or 2.84g (Villa prefers Crude Cardamom & Caramelized Raisin bitters, a limited-edition bottling, but says an equal amount of any style of bitters will work)
DIRECTIONS
Pour the rehydrated milk into a large mixing cup or Cambro.
In a second container, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Add the batched cocktail into the container with the rehydrated milk. Give it a gentle stir, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, during which it should curdle.
Pour the cocktail mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (a chinois strainer lined with a moistened linen towel or a micron bag/Superbag will also work) into a clean container. The resulting liquid should be slightly cloudy.
Pour the cocktail mixture a second time through the same sieve (including through the curds in the sieve) into a clean container. The resulting liquid should be fairly clear.
Funnel into a bottle and cap. Keeps indefinitely at room temperature.
To serve, pour 3 ounces over big ice, and stir to chill.
Garnish with raisins, which should sink to the bottom of the glass.
Rehydrated Toasted Milk
Preheat an oven to 275°F. Spread 40 grams of milk powder (Villa recommends Anthony’s or Hoosier Hill Farm dry milk powders) on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Toast in the oven for 15 minutes.
In a saucepan, bring 8oz or 240g of water to a simmer. Whisk in the toasted milk powder and 1/2 gram of salt. Reduce the heat to low, and allow to rehydrate for at least 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Whisk well (or use an immersion blender) before using in milk punch.
What’s my verdict?
I’ve tried this technique three times, using dairy cow milk once and coconut milk twice. I found that the results really can vary! It does indeed taste like browned butter, which was equally surprising and exciting. If the powder is toasted to the point it turns brown, it has a lingering fake confectionery taste on the back palate which was undesirable for me. However, when I gave it to my friends to try (who don’t work in the industry), they couldn’t tell the difference and loved it!
A few thoughts on the toasting method:
I suggest following the recipe from the brand packet you use to rehydrate the milk. Watch the oven or stovetop you use closely. I found the best-tasting result was from the powder where the colour developed from white to pale yellow when I pulled it from the oven.
Finally, is it actually all that original?
Kind of.
Using toasted milk powder and rehydrating it has been a popular technique used in baking for many years. Edd Kimber, who is a famous British baker and cookbook author says he started toasting milk powder after a chocolate maker let him in on his secret: They made caramelized white chocolate with toasted milk powder. “This was a light bulb moment,” Edd says. He’s been using it in his baking ever since, including “double brown butter” cream cheese frosting (featuring both brown butter and toasted milk powder), cookies, cakes, and more. “Adding toasted milk powder to baked goods is like a secret flavor enhancer … I like to think of it almost as a seasoning.”
From my own research, I haven’t found this technique used in cocktails of any kind, or specifically in milk clarification. Bravo, Daniel Villa.
Friends of mine who’ve also tried this technique have said it works great in an
Old fashioned, Manhattans, and any other stir down. However, here are some of my own signatures worked out pretty damn great too!
BOTTLE KILL PUNCH
Yield: 26 x 90ml serves
I followed the (very rough) Fred Siggins Punch recipe for this one. You can find Fred’s original recipe over at Cara Devine’s YouTube channel: Behind the Bar with Cara Devine.
I created this milk punch for the AFL grand final day celebration with friends, using Daniel’s technique:
2 cups or 500 ml Angel’s Envy Bourbon
1 cup or 250 ml orange curacao
1 cup or 250 ml dry vermouth
1/2 cup 125 ml Lychee liqueur
3 cups or 750 ml Oolong green tea
1 cup or 250 ml orange juice
1 cup or 250 ml orange oleo
1 cup of sugar and the peel of 2 oranges
3 star anise
2 cinnamon cinnamon sticks
Clarified with toasted dairy milk powder
Topped with Grapefruit soda in a tall glass or served over a big cube of ice with a lychee garnish.
Method 1 – Punch: Add sugar to citrus peel and allow to sit overnight. Pour hot tea over to dissolve sugar. Add all other ingredients.
Method 2 – Rehydrated Toasted Whole Milk See above
Method 3 – Clarification
Pour the rehydrated milk into a large mixing cup.
In a second container, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Add the batched cocktail into the container with the rehydrated milk. Give it a gentle stir, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, during which it should curdle.
Pour the cocktail mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (a chinois strainer lined with a moistened linen towel or a micron bag/Superbag will also work) into a clean container. The resulting liquid should be slightly cloudy.
Pour the cocktail mixture a second time through the same sieve (including through the curds in the sieve) into a clean container. The resulting liquid should be fairly clear.
Funnel into a bottle and cap. Keeps indefinitely at room temperature.
To serve, pour 90 ml over big ice, and stir to chill.
MERRI CREEK TRAIL
Yield: 20 x 90ml serves
A signature serve I created for a side – car pop up night at PAR in Fitzroy, Melbourne 30/10/23. Inspired by the Merri creek trail, in Merri-bek (Brunswick), where I live and imperfect fruits.
675ml River mint infused Remy Martin VSOP Cognac*
300ml River mint infused Cointreau*
300ml Imperfect Mandarin Mead*
20 dashes Wattleseed bitters
500ml toasted and rehydrated coconut milk
200g spent coffee grinds
Clarification: See above.
Add coffee grinds to filter and pour batch over the grinds.
Once filtered keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
River mint infusion:
Infuse 100ml river mint in 675ml Remy Martin and 300ml Cointreau in a container and sit it in the fridge for 48hrs. Strain and bottle.
*Imperfect Mandarin Mead:
200g imperfect mandarins
400g water
200g raw honey
Crush Mandarins in a glass flip top container
Add water and honey
Mix thoroughly until honey is completely dissolved
Store in a dark place that’s ideally slightly warm ( I keep my fermets behind my coffee machine at home, so it gets a little warmth each morning)
Flip the container open every 3 days for 7-10 days ( I tasted each time I opened it. By day 10 it’s, citrusy, a little funky and slightly carbonated)
Strain mead and bottle.