Almond Milk: History and Recipes

Jan 26, 2011
Amelia Hill

Almonds - Luigi Chiesa

Almond milk was used as a milk substitute in the Middle Ages. It's easy to make your own today using ground almonds and water.

The history of almond milk dates back to the Middle Ages. Before refrigeration, the best way to preserve milk was to make butter or cheese. If a cook wanted to use fresh milk in a recipe, they had to have access to a cow, goat, or other milk-producing animal. They couldn't trust milk purchased in the marketplace, which might be watered-down or spoiled.

Early Uses for Almond Milk

Unlike animal milk, milk made from ground nuts steeped in water was easy to produce and did not readily spoil. Cooks could store almonds for long periods of time, only making them into almond milk when necessary. Like animal milk, however, almond milk has a high fat content. This meant that it could be used to make butter.

One popular dish using almond milk was blancmange, a pudding with Arabic origins. Early European versions were made with almond milk, rosewater, and chicken or other poultry. Modern blancmange is a sweet pudding flavored with almonds, although with a base of milk or cream and usually thickened with gelatin.

Lent, the period before Easter in the Church calendar, was traditionally a time of fasting during which no animal products could be consumed. Because cooks could not use animal milk or butter during Lent and other fast days, almond milk was a useful vegetarian substitute.

Early Recipes for Almond Milk

Recipes for almond milk – and recipes using almond milk – appear in many medieval cookbooks. Le Viandier de Taillevent, a French cookbook written around 1300, includes this recipe (from James Prescott's translation): Take peeled almonds, crush very well in a mortar, steep in water boiled and cooled to lukewarm, strain through cheesecloth, and boil your almond milk on a few coals for an instant or two.

Terence Scully updates this recipe in his 1988 edition of Le Viandier de Taillevent, instructing the cook to steep one part (by volume) ground almonds in two parts boiling water, then blend the almond milk to form a liquid.

Modern Recipe for Almond Milk

This modern recipe is for a filtered almond milk, similar to what you'd buy in a store. Begin by soaking one cup of raw almonds in water for six hours. Drain and rinse, then cover with water and soak for another six hours.

Drain the almonds again, then combine them with four cups of filtered water in a blender. Pulse until the almonds are ground. Strain the almond pulp out of the milk and stir in a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of vanilla, and about three tablespoons of honey.

Store your almond milk in the refrigerator for up to five days.