Last week while visiting my local natural food store and stocking up on soymilk for the week, I discovered Organic Vermont Soy, a locally produced soymilk. Maybe I should say a more local soymilk, since its made in Vermont and I'm in New York. The soymilk does come in plastic bottles which is a bummer, but as they point out here, its locally made and 100% recyclable and the aeseptic containers don't recycle well anyhow.
I bought my usual stash of Silk plus a bottle of chocolate, plain and vanilla of the Vermont Soy, which was more than $4.50 per 1/2 gallon. I had high hopes. Here's the real bummer, 2 out of the 3 flavors were sour and slightly curdled. I don't blame the company, things happen but I sure didn't have the time or energy to devote to another trip to the store. What good is spoiled soymilk?
Actually, it's really good for most baked goods. Everytime you make a recipe that requires you to add vinegar to soymilk, you've created the same thing that was mocking me in my own fridge. With that in mind, I worked through my personal distaste and made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes. I told no one but Jim about my covert operation because everything grosses out kids, especially teenagers.
No one noticed a thing. In fact, the teenagers slept in and never got a taste of the chocolate chip pancakes because their brothers ate them all. "They were fluffy," one of the boys informed me. Aha! Clabbered soymilk (the fancy name for soymilk with vinegar in it) is supposed to do just that; make a lighter, fluffier product. My little experiment worked!
Since then, I've snuck the soymilk into the corn muffins and a few other recipes with very good results. So the next time your stuck with spoiled soymilk, give it a try. BTW, it works with cow's milk as well.
I'd like to try Vermont Soymilk again so I've sent an email to the company about my problem. I wonder what their customer service department is like?
10 comments:
Been there, done that. But don't tell my sweetie. (I don't tell him about past expiration dates either...)
Okay, I may be silly, but using slightly spoiled soymilk isn't bad for your health, is it? I know that "spoiled" cow's milk is okay for a while, but I just don't know that much about soymilk.
P.S. I love your blog!
cool! we go through soymilk pretty fast, but the soy creamer i buy for my coffee always goes bad before i can finish it. my guess is that it's not dangerous since it just starts to smell and look like tofu!
http://halfassfoodie.blogspot.com
Oh Chile, I had to laugh. My hubby knows but don't tell my kids!
Krista to the best of my knowledge it isn't a bad thing. A lot of recipes have you put vinegar into soymilk to clabber, which does the same thing. As a precaution, I don't let anyone eat raw batter when I do this. Thanks for reading.
Robyn, good point. Tofu is coagulated soymilk.
cow milk and soy milk both have proteins that fall out of solution when an acid is added. Vinegar or lemon with cow milk makes a simple cheese. and a food acid and soy milk make a simple tofu.
Interestingly milk plastic (soy or cow) is make in the same fashion.
Hurray! I was about to dash my non-GMO Publix Greenwise into the compost pile: now the whole grain pancakes will have some lift!!
Nice work Kate and company.
Mark in Orlando
I made the most amazing muffins with spoiled soy milk. Problem was they left a rather unpleasant aftertaste. Now, was that due to the soy or something else? Guess I'll never know.
The issue with spoiled milk is the bad bacteria that develops, as it can cause 'food poisoning'. But the high temperature cooking would presumably kill all bacteria, so I suppose that's why it's safe.
Thank you for your post. Glad to know that I am not the only one. I have made a couple of lemon cakes with spoiled soy milk, and they turned out just fine IMO. I figured that yogurt and sour cream are made via a sort of spoiling process, so cooking with soy milk a little past it's prime is fine.
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