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Fermented milk from Denmark

Tykmælktykmælk

Tykmælk is Danish thick sour milk. One home recipe sets whole milk with a little buttermilk, covered somewhere warm, in 24 hours; dairies now sour pasteurised milk with a lactic culture, and one adds an acidophilus culture too.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Tykmælk itself.

DocumentedFermented milk24 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceA home recipe from a Danish food site; dairies use a pure culture instead of buttermilk.
Whole milk, 3.5 % fat1 litre[nfl-recipe]
Buttermilk (kærnemælk)1 dl[nfl-recipe]
Starterother: buttermilk (home recipe); a lactic culture plus L. acidophilus (one dairy)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: The dairy high-pasteurises the whole milk

Step 1 of 4
Heat or high-pasteurise the milk (dairy)
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. acidophilus

Output: pasteurised whole milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills the milk's own bacteria

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Tykmælk is Danish thick sour milk. One home recipe sets whole milk with a little buttermilk, covered somewhere warm, in 24 hours; dairies now sour pasteurised milk with a lactic culture, and one adds an acidophilus culture too. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, leave to sour and set, takes 24 h (Nielsen K) and runs at 15–30 °C (Kastrup C.B. (Mejeriforeningen 2019). Mesophilic lactic acid bacteria, the same culture used for kærnemælk, ymer and crème fraîche and Lactobacillus acidophilus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[nfl-recipe]Leave to sour and set
Temperature15–30 °CReported[ing-mejeri]Leave to sour and set

What makes this one different

Tykmælk is set at room temperature by mesophilic bacteria, not held hot like yogurt. It uses the same culture as Danish kærnemælk and ymer.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Household tykmælkWhole milk left covered at room temperature with a little live buttermilk.
  • Koldskål baseDairies suggest it for cold buttermilk soup, dressings and baking.

Safety

Dairy tykmælk is made from pasteurised milk and kept at 2–5 °C.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [ing-mejeri] Kastrup C.B. (Mejeriforeningen, Danish Dairy Board) 2019, Spørg Fagfolket, Hvordan er kærnemælk fremstillet, Ingeniøren, 24 October 2019web
  2. [arla-tyk] Arla Pro, Arla ØKO økologisk tykmælk 3,5 %, product sheet (producer page)web
  3. [nfl-recipe] Nielsen K., Danish tykmælk recipe, Nordic Food Livingweb
  4. [wp-da] da.wikipedia, Tykmælk (outline)wiki