Almond Milking

 Warning: this is a raw product with no kill step after preparation, so sanitation and safe food-handling is of upmost importance 

 

Smaller Batch 

Yield –2qt (1 jug) 

1 cup (140g) almonds  

10g sugar

1.5g salt (use a sensitive scale for this) 

1.5g vanilla extract (ditto)

Splash of hot water to dissolve salt 

 

  1. Put almonds and dates into filter basket 

  2. Fill base to minimum line 

  3. Run though two cycles 

  4. Decant into jug, add vanilla and salt. 

  5. Fill base to minimum line 

  6. Run two cycles 

  7. Decant into jug, add vanilla and salt. Top off to 2qt line with more filtered water. Can be good to rinse the milk maker with filtered water and pour that into the jug so you get all the goods.  

 

Note: black parts of the machine cannot be submerged in water! To clean, carefully sponge off with hot soapy water, rinse carefully, then hold stainless business end in sani-water for 30 seconds. 

 

 

Larger Batch 

Yield – 2 gallons (4 jugs) 

3lbs (1,361g) almonds 

80g sugar

- 

7g salt 

10g vanilla extract 

Splash of hot water to dissolve salt 

 

  1. Almonds and blended dates into almond cow 

  2. Add water to max line 

  3. Run two cycles on the almond cow 

  4. Rinseb lender head immediately so there’s no time for it to dry/crust* 
     

  5. Drain milk into 5-gallon spigot bucket (use one above dish rack) 

  6. Stir pulp to get it to drain all the way 

  7. Pack up pulp into quart tubs, label and freeze 

  8. Add dissolved salt and vanilla to finished batch 

  9. Stir right before bottling and with each new bottle 

  10. Label bottles and store in fridge. 
     

*Note: head of machine cannot be submerged in water. To clean, carefully sponge off with hot soapy water, rinse carefully, then hold stainless business end in sani-water for 30 seconds. The base can be washed like any ole dish. 

Here’s a handy visual tutorial for using the smaller almond cow:

1. Add filtered water up to the MAX fill line on the inside of the Almond Cow pitcher.

2. Add ingredients into Almond Cow basket.

3. Assemble: lock basket into place over blade.

4. Lower top into portioned water and then press the Almond Cow head.

5. As first cycle processes (it will stop, go 3x), portion other ingredients into small steam pitcher

6. Once first cycle ends, press the button again.

7. After the end of second cycle, remove lid. Wearing a glove, open the basket.

8. Hold basket with gloved hand while mixing with green spatula to get extra milk out of basket.

9. Dump waste into compost (or bring it home to make porridge or muffins or pancakes with it!) . It’s still got a ton of nutrients and flavor, not to mention fiber.

10. Pour a small amount of milk into the steam pitcher with all other ingredients.

11. Steam to dissolve and emulsify ingredients.

12. Using 2 qt jug, combine milk in pitcher with milk remaining in cow base. Label, date, initial as ujsh.

13. Fill the raining airspace with filtered water. Hell yeah! Shake it up. (the photo below it un-filled)

14. Be super very careful not to submerge HANDLE (where the power connects) OR the top part.

Thanks for milking the non-animals!

Why do we make our own vegan milks?

  1. Environmentally friendly solution, Part 1: over 90% of oat milk is water. Shipping containers of mostly water across the continent in the form of tetra packs of vegan milk is wasteful and increases the carbon footprint of the drink. We have water here! We don’t need to ship it in.

  2. Environmentally friendly solution, Part 2: Speaking of tetra packs (the boxes that alt milks come in) - they are not recyclable. We just have to throw them away. When we make our own milks, we use reusable containers that can be washed and reused a load of times.

  3. Economically friendly solution: boxed pre-made milks are loads more expensive than house-made, and are also more expensive than cow’s milk, so we have to either charge more when a customer substitutes, punishing customers for making an environmental- or health-focused choice, or we have to raise all our prices so cow milk drinks subsidize the vegan ones in a way that’s hard to predict the effect of. But with house-made milk, it doesn’t cost customers anything to substitute.

  4. Flavor: a contentious one! Some people prefer the flavor of fresh, non-shelf-stabilized house-made milk. Some people prefer boxed because it’s more heavily filtered, tastes like what they’re used to, and has stabilizers. We have both house-made and boxed in stock so people can chose boxed for an up-charge, or have house-made for free.