Ginger milk curd, also known as ginger-juice milk curd, ginger milk pudding or simply ginger milk, is a
Chinese hot
dessert
Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream, and possibly a beverage, such as dessert wine or liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, ...
originated in
Shawan Ancient Town,
Panyu District
Panyu, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanized as Punyü, is one of 11 District (China), urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, Guangdong Province, China. Since January 1975, Panyu County has bee ...
,
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
in the
Guangdong Province
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
in
southern China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The main ingredients are
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...
,
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
, and
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
.
Water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...
milk is used in the original recipe.
Underlying biochemical principle
The most important part of the ginger in ginger milk curd is the ginger protease
zingipain. This substance with molecular weight of 31 kDa is found with three forms of isoelectric point values around 5.58, 5.40, and 5.22, respectively. The three forms have very similar biochemical behavior, where the optimal proteolytic activity is and maximum clotting activity at . However, clotting decreases significantly at temperatures of 75 °C (167 °F) or above.
Milk is a substance consisting mainly of
milk fat globules and
casein micelles in a continuous phase of water, sugar, whey protein and minerals. Casein micelles consist of mainly α(s1)-casein, α(s2)-casein, β-casein, and κ-casein, where hydrophobic α and β-casein are in the inner sub-micelle and hydrophilic κ-casein is in the outer part.
When the milk starts curdling, the curds are small, but as coagulation increases, curd size increases until the milk ends up with a tofu-like structure. When the curdling occurs, the ginger protease cuts open the κ-casein so that the hydrophilic C-terminus and the hydrophobic N-terminus separate. This disrupts the stability of the casein micelle. In the
hydrophobic effect
The hydrophobic effect is the observed tendency of nonpolar substances to aggregate in an aqueous solution and to be excluded by water. The word hydrophobic literally means "water-fearing", and it describes the segregation of water and nonpola ...
, the hydrophobic casein coagulates.
[Zhang P (1999) Study on Milk Clotting of Ginger juice . China Dairy Industry 27:17–19.]
See also
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Douhua
Douhua () is a Chinese sweet or savoury snack made with silken tofu. It is also referred to as doufuhua (), doufunao (; "tofu brains") in northern China, tofu pudding, and soybean pudding.
History
Tofu is thought to have originated in ancie ...
*
Junket (dessert)
*
List of Chinese desserts
Chinese desserts are sweet foods and dishes that are served with Chinese tea, tea, along with meals
*
List of desserts
A dessert is typically the sweet Course (food), course that, after the entrée and main course, concludes a meal in the culture of many countries, particularly western world, Western culture. The course usually consists of sweet foods, but may ...
*
References
External links
Ginger milk curd photos
Chinese desserts
Cantonese desserts
Curd
Macanese desserts
Puddings
Ginger desserts
Milk desserts
{{China-dessert-stub