Scalded milk is milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 that has been heated to 82 °C (179.6 °F). At this temperature, bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 and enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

s in the milk are destroyed. Since most milk sold today is pasteurized

Pasteurization

Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...

, which accomplishes both of these goals, milk is typically scalded simply to increase its temperature, or to change the consistency due to the denaturing of proteins.

During scalding, a milk watcher

Milk watcher

A milk watcher, milk saver, pot watcher, pot minder, milk guard, or boil over preventer is a cooking utensil placed at the bottom of a pot to prevent boiling over of liquids, and especially the burning of milk....

 (a cooking utensil), may be used to prevent both boiling over and scorching (burning) of the milk.

Uses

• Scalded milk is called for in the original recipes for Béchamel sauce
  Béchamel sauce
  Béchamel sauce , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine and is used in many recipes of Italian cuisine, for example lasagne. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white roux...
  
  , to prevent the sauce from thickening excessively. Since these early recipes predate pasteurization, this was a necessary step.
• Scalded milk is used in bread
  Bread
  Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
  
   to make a more tender loaf.
• Scalded milk is used in yogurt to make the proteins unfold
  Denaturation (biochemistry)
  Denaturation is a process in which proteins or nucleic acids lose their tertiary structure and secondary structure by application of some external stress or compound, such as a strong acid or base, a concentrated inorganic salt, an organic solvent , or heat...
  
  . The acid produced during the yogurt development causes less whey separation and a firmer yogurt.
• Café au lait
  Café au lait
  Café au lait is a French coffee drink. The meaning of the term differs between Europe and the United States; in both cases it means some kind of coffee with hot milk added, in contrast to white coffee, which is coffee with room temperature milk or other whitener added.- Europe :In Europe, "café au...
  
  , baked milk
  Baked milk
  Baked milk is a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia and Ukraine. It is made by simmering milk on low heat for eight hours or longer....
  
  , and ryazhenka also use scalded milk.
• Scalded milk is used in many doughnut recipes.

However, latte art

Latte Art

Latte art is a method of preparing coffee created by pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso and resulting in a pattern or design on the surface of the resulting latte. It can also be created or embellished by simply "drawing" in the top layer of foam...

 does not use scalded milk, as scalding destroys the microfoam

Microfoam

Microfoam, in coffee jargon, is a term used to describe an ideal standard for steamed milk, used for making espresso-based coffee drinks, particularly those with latte art...

 texture; milk for latte art is heated to below the scalding point.

See also

• Baked milk
  Baked milk
  Baked milk is a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia and Ukraine. It is made by simmering milk on low heat for eight hours or longer....
  
  
• Condensed milk
  Condensed milk
  Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...
  
  
• Evaporated milk
  Evaporated milk
  Evaporated milk, also known as dehydrated milk, is a shelf-stable canned milk product with about 60% of the water removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains added sugar. Sweetened condensed milk requires less processing since the added sugar inhibits ...
  
  
• Powdered milk
  Powdered milk
  Powdered milk is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and does not need to be refrigerated, due to its low moisture content. Another purpose is to reduce its bulk for...
  
  
• Clotted cream
  Clotted cream
  Clotted cream is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms 'clots' or 'clouts'...