Is there any reason to scald milk?

Question

I recently found an old family cream pie recipe that called for scalding the milk. Is there any reason to do this other than to kill bacteria? If not, isn't this an unnecessary step if using pasteurized milk?

Asked by chills42

Answer

If you've found a very old recipe that calls for scalding for food safety reasons, then yes, it is probably unnecessary. However, there are places where it is called for.

In particular, when making Béchamel (which is made by combining milk and roux), it is important to scald or at least warm the milk, otherwise you can and most likely will end up with lumps. The reason to actually scald as oppose to simply warming the milk tends to be one of cooking time; the hotter the milk is, the less time you have to spend whisking.

In general, any recipe that calls for milk and needs to thicken tends to benefit from scalding for the latter reason - it just takes less time to thicken that way.

Answered by Aaronut

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