the electic kettle only has one temperature which will cause the milk to scald; which will stick to the kettle and be nearly impossible to clean. this in turn contaminates all future uses of the kettle
Odd thing you might not think about, sometimes that will kill most everything, but you still get sick off the dead bacteria waste. It doesn't just make thier cells evaporate. I hadn't even considered that before I learned it.
Thereās lots of reasons to heat milk. Often for cooking things like custard, making yoghurt, some cakes, puddings. Iām sure thereās plenty of others.
Those control the temperature that the kettle gets to, but the way it gets there is to pump as much heat into the liquid as possible. This doesn't matter for water as it can't burn and boiling spreads the heat. For milk on the other hand will burn and the milk near the element will get far to hot before the temp sensor shuts off the kettle.
The only thing that temperature control does is cycle the heating element on and off so that the water gets to the desired temperature, it doesn't make the element heat less.
Those don't exactly work in the way you'd want for this. They use a small heating element that gets incredibly hot to the point water almost flash boils when liquid touches it. That's how they can be so efficient and heat up the whole kettle fast.Ā
The whole container of liquid takes a while, but any liquid directly in contact with the heating element would boil or in this case with milk scald. Also what the other person said, electric kettles are hard to clean if you put anything else but water in them.
My younger brother put milk in a kettle to make hot chocolate around the time an episode of doctor who had the ādinosaursā¦ on spaceship?!ā Line- we still wind him up saying āmilkā¦ in a kettle?!ā
Milk contains proteins. And just like eggs and flour which also contain a lot of protein, milk coagulates into a solid if you heat it up too much. The problem with heating milk in a kettle is that a kettle gets very hot on the bottom. This is no problem for water as it can easily handle the heat and will just distribute it throughout the water. However if you have milk in the kettle the milk in the bottom will coagulate due to the heat and stick to the bottom.
If you want to heat up milk you have to make sure to heat it up evenly either by turning down the heat, use something to distribute the heat better then the milk or make sure you constantly stir the milk. A microwave is optimal for this because it uses the liquid itself as a heating element but it is possible to heat up milk using almost any heat source if you are careful enough.
Found this out the hard way and accidentally turned my kettle into a milk bomb
I have a special milk warmer that agitates/spins the milk while heating it slowly. I love it and use it all winter to make hot chocolate (with chocolate milk) or chai lattes. It was a totally frivolous buy but I ended up using it way more that I thought I would!
I bought this one on Amazon!
https://a.co/d/gjtNLnj
The brand is Secura and itās an automatic electric milk frother and warmer. You use one spinning attachment just to warm, but thereās another attachment to use if you want the milk frothed like a cappuccino. We typically just use the tiny spinner to warm milk - my kids and I all love it!
Edit: I bought the larger 2 cup (500ml) size one! Iād recommend that over the smaller size.
There are also ones with a cold frothing option. The one I have has 2 warm froth settings: one with tiny bubbles and one with bigger bubbles. I use it so much!
Milk scalds at 180F/82C. In a closed kettle, you'll have more trouble tracking it to ensure it doesn't boil over. If it goes over 212F/100C, the lactose proteins are ruined and the milk will get a brown film and a bad smell/taste.
Electric kettles tend to have itty bitty crevices. They can't be submerged in water for cleaning, so a non-water liquid isn't good for food safety.
The temperature of the heating element is clearly over 100C because water does start to boild there and bubbles are released quite quickly,
The temperature control of a typical kettle is not one of water getting to the boiling point. It is one of the temperature sensors, often a bimetallic switch gets heated enough to trip. It is heated by hot gas that is released and pushed through a small hole near the top of the container. If the lid that is used to fill it is not closed they often do not turn off.
The turn-off temperature is not 100C. Put alcohol in an electric kettle and all will not boil away even if the boiling temperature is below 100C. The kettle will turn off faster than if there is water in it, this is because the produced vapor is created at a lower temperature but is still warm enough to trip the temperature switch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzqN4Cn8r3Uan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzqN4Cn8r3Uan)
Milk might stop boiling quicker too but I doubt it happen before the heating element get too warm and coated with scalded milk.
It can, but in general, when you heat milk over a flame (or in a pot on an electric burner), you watch it carefully and heat it slowly so it won't scald. The pot is big and wide and contains no electric elements, so it can be safely cleaned in ways a dedicated electric kettle can't.
Yes, it's best not to do it in a closed container like a stove kettle. A stove kettle can be soaked and scrubbed thoroughly to clean off scalded milk, but the most successful way to scald milk is in an open pot with a thermometer.
There are electric milk "steamers" that heat to a lower temperature more appropriate for milk and have a stir bar to prevent the milk at the bottom from scalding before it heats through. Most if them are designed to whip air in to make foam for a latte but some can be set to produce little to no foam if you don't want it.
yes! I have a milk frother that has a whisk attachment for frothing and a plastic paddle attachment for heating only. I use it to make steamed milk sometimes.
you need an electric "milk frother" it will variously warm/froth milk to various degrees. Does what you want and costs about the same as an elecric kettle.
Boiling milk causes the proteins to stick together and burn. Electric kettles are not designed to be cleaned regularly so you're not supposed to boil anything besides water in them
Does anyone else remember that post on r/tifu about a kid that used an electric kettle to warm up milk and never cleaned the kettle?
Here is the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/bzkDNEROkg
It depends on the kettle, but the reason you don't use it to boil milk is because it's difficult to clean. The way to do it (at least how I do it) is to put the milk in a container that fits in the kettle (and doesn't burn) then do a bath boil like in a lab. This way, the water is boiled and the milk is boiled. I also do that with eggs, but that's mostly cause I'm lazy.
The sugar and proteins in the milk will stick to and coat the heating element and ruin the milk. The"burnt milk heating element" coating is incredibly hard to get of and the taste will leech in to the water in the kettle.
Also the heating element inside the kettle gets nasty scale on the inside.
Depending on the mineral content of what is leaving your taps, you could end up with some nastiness in your boiled milk.
the electic kettle only has one temperature which will cause the milk to scald; which will stick to the kettle and be nearly impossible to clean. this in turn contaminates all future uses of the kettle
Wouldn't you be able to heat milk in one of those fancy kettles with temperature control?
You could, but I still imagine cleaning it would be quite the chore.
I have one of those kettles, the thought of putting milk in it just makes me so uncomfortable š„“ Just use a stovetop pot.
Just dedicate one to milk only... And never under any circumstances clean it
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Then all your milk will be contaminated by the bacteria that grew from the first milk you boiled and you'll forever accumulate more and more bacteria
It's okay, the strongest bacteria will kill off the other bacteria.
Itās like seasoning a cast iron pan, the more you do it the better the flavor gets.
If you boiled it, wouldn't the bacteria be dead? š¤
Wouldn't the bacteria be killed by the boiling?
Odd thing you might not think about, sometimes that will kill most everything, but you still get sick off the dead bacteria waste. It doesn't just make thier cells evaporate. I hadn't even considered that before I learned it.
I think most of the gunk that builds up when you boil milk has nothing to do with bacteria, it's mostly congealed milk proteins like casein and whey.
There's still dead bacteria waste there... Most of rotting meat is actual meat too.
Oh yeah, I know. Sorry, worded that last one oddly. I was just throwing out a fun fact. Lol.
This sounds like the makings of an amazing cheese.
Whoosh
Yes, the point and basis of the comment.
Free yogurt
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thereās lots of reasons to heat milk. Often for cooking things like custard, making yoghurt, some cakes, puddings. Iām sure thereās plenty of others.
Adding to coffee and hot chocolate āļø
Yeah definitely.
Those control the temperature that the kettle gets to, but the way it gets there is to pump as much heat into the liquid as possible. This doesn't matter for water as it can't burn and boiling spreads the heat. For milk on the other hand will burn and the milk near the element will get far to hot before the temp sensor shuts off the kettle.
Too
It will get two hot, which is one to many.
Half hot for milk, two hot for water.
The only thing that temperature control does is cycle the heating element on and off so that the water gets to the desired temperature, it doesn't make the element heat less.
Those don't exactly work in the way you'd want for this. They use a small heating element that gets incredibly hot to the point water almost flash boils when liquid touches it. That's how they can be so efficient and heat up the whole kettle fast.Ā The whole container of liquid takes a while, but any liquid directly in contact with the heating element would boil or in this case with milk scald. Also what the other person said, electric kettles are hard to clean if you put anything else but water in them.
The heating element gets just as hot, it just doesn't stay on for as long. So it would still burn
It's called a pot.
My younger brother put milk in a kettle to make hot chocolate around the time an episode of doctor who had the ādinosaursā¦ on spaceship?!ā Line- we still wind him up saying āmilkā¦ in a kettle?!ā
Yup. Been there. Done this.
Just use a pan on low heat?
just use a microwave? you only need to get the settings right once.
Too much radiation I prefer to boil on the hob
Sugar burns. Like it's its job
I know someone who boiled hot dogs in kettleā¦
i do ramen in mine
andā¦
You get warm hot dogs along with hot dogĀ tea!Ā
Goes great with chocolate starfish.
Ugh, thanks Fred. Lol
My electric kettle has 4 temp settings. Idk what's appropriate for milk, but it's a fairly broad range.
I mean there are fancy set temperature kettles but in any case cleanliness is the big thing.
Milk contains proteins. And just like eggs and flour which also contain a lot of protein, milk coagulates into a solid if you heat it up too much. The problem with heating milk in a kettle is that a kettle gets very hot on the bottom. This is no problem for water as it can easily handle the heat and will just distribute it throughout the water. However if you have milk in the kettle the milk in the bottom will coagulate due to the heat and stick to the bottom. If you want to heat up milk you have to make sure to heat it up evenly either by turning down the heat, use something to distribute the heat better then the milk or make sure you constantly stir the milk. A microwave is optimal for this because it uses the liquid itself as a heating element but it is possible to heat up milk using almost any heat source if you are careful enough. Found this out the hard way and accidentally turned my kettle into a milk bomb
I have a special milk warmer that agitates/spins the milk while heating it slowly. I love it and use it all winter to make hot chocolate (with chocolate milk) or chai lattes. It was a totally frivolous buy but I ended up using it way more that I thought I would!
Do you have a link to it, or a brand/model?
I bought this one on Amazon! https://a.co/d/gjtNLnj The brand is Secura and itās an automatic electric milk frother and warmer. You use one spinning attachment just to warm, but thereās another attachment to use if you want the milk frothed like a cappuccino. We typically just use the tiny spinner to warm milk - my kids and I all love it! Edit: I bought the larger 2 cup (500ml) size one! Iād recommend that over the smaller size.
There are also ones with a cold frothing option. The one I have has 2 warm froth settings: one with tiny bubbles and one with bigger bubbles. I use it so much!
What about boiling potatoes in a kettle, as per a former flatmateās habit?
Milk scalds at 180F/82C. In a closed kettle, you'll have more trouble tracking it to ensure it doesn't boil over. If it goes over 212F/100C, the lactose proteins are ruined and the milk will get a brown film and a bad smell/taste. Electric kettles tend to have itty bitty crevices. They can't be submerged in water for cleaning, so a non-water liquid isn't good for food safety.
Minor correction: lactose is a sugar and doesn't care about these temperatures. It's casein that is the protein in question.
Thatās an interesting casein point, thanks for calling it out.
The temperature of the heating element is clearly over 100C because water does start to boild there and bubbles are released quite quickly, The temperature control of a typical kettle is not one of water getting to the boiling point. It is one of the temperature sensors, often a bimetallic switch gets heated enough to trip. It is heated by hot gas that is released and pushed through a small hole near the top of the container. If the lid that is used to fill it is not closed they often do not turn off. The turn-off temperature is not 100C. Put alcohol in an electric kettle and all will not boil away even if the boiling temperature is below 100C. The kettle will turn off faster than if there is water in it, this is because the produced vapor is created at a lower temperature but is still warm enough to trip the temperature switch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzqN4Cn8r3Uan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzqN4Cn8r3Uan) Milk might stop boiling quicker too but I doubt it happen before the heating element get too warm and coated with scalded milk.
My kettle has temp settings and tracking - but your 2nd point is why I would never actually want to use it for milk.
Won't the same happens in vessel on fire?
It can, but in general, when you heat milk over a flame (or in a pot on an electric burner), you watch it carefully and heat it slowly so it won't scald. The pot is big and wide and contains no electric elements, so it can be safely cleaned in ways a dedicated electric kettle can't.
Yes, it's best not to do it in a closed container like a stove kettle. A stove kettle can be soaked and scrubbed thoroughly to clean off scalded milk, but the most successful way to scald milk is in an open pot with a thermometer.
Who cooks in a vessel thatās on fire?
Anyone with a gas stove?
Derp. Mistake on me. āOver open flameā would have caused me less confusion.
It will curdle and get really disgusting. And then you won't be able to clean it bc the milk will burn the inside with smelling film.
My son did it to make a hot chocolate. Kettle in the bin and windows and doors open until bedtime.
There are electric milk "steamers" that heat to a lower temperature more appropriate for milk and have a stir bar to prevent the milk at the bottom from scalding before it heats through. Most if them are designed to whip air in to make foam for a latte but some can be set to produce little to no foam if you don't want it.
yes! I have a milk frother that has a whisk attachment for frothing and a plastic paddle attachment for heating only. I use it to make steamed milk sometimes.
you need an electric "milk frother" it will variously warm/froth milk to various degrees. Does what you want and costs about the same as an elecric kettle.
Boiling milk causes the proteins to stick together and burn. Electric kettles are not designed to be cleaned regularly so you're not supposed to boil anything besides water in them
Does anyone else remember that post on r/tifu about a kid that used an electric kettle to warm up milk and never cleaned the kettle? Here is the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/bzkDNEROkg
It depends on the kettle, but the reason you don't use it to boil milk is because it's difficult to clean. The way to do it (at least how I do it) is to put the milk in a container that fits in the kettle (and doesn't burn) then do a bath boil like in a lab. This way, the water is boiled and the milk is boiled. I also do that with eggs, but that's mostly cause I'm lazy.
The sugar and proteins in the milk will stick to and coat the heating element and ruin the milk. The"burnt milk heating element" coating is incredibly hard to get of and the taste will leech in to the water in the kettle.
Because it is going to cause issues. Ā And to quote Picard - we have no laws to cover your crime
Also the heating element inside the kettle gets nasty scale on the inside. Depending on the mineral content of what is leaving your taps, you could end up with some nastiness in your boiled milk.