By Nadia Marshall
If you’ve ever made a moderate to large batch of Sunthi or Ginger Chai, you may have had the unfortunate experience of your beautiful pot of chai curdling on you at the last minute. I know I have. This has actually happened to me about 4 times now.... and has been no less devastating each time! It has almost put me off making big batches of chai altogether!
So I finally decided to do some research on the subject, and what I discovered was very interesting!
Basically there is a protease in fresh ginger that acts as a curdling agent. When it is exposed to temperatures about 70 degrees it is, however, rapidly destroyed. I’ve also read that the younger and juicier the ginger, the higher the quantity of this protease and the more likely your chai is to curdle.
So the trick is, make sure you boil your milk and water first and add the ginger seconds after it comes to the boil. It will then be exposed to temperatures around the 100 degree mark so shouldn’t curdle. And, if you’ve grated your ginger, avoid adding the juice to the chai - only add the flesh.
Another even more cautious option is to soak your fresh ginger flesh in some hot water, boiled fresh from the kettle, before adding it to your milk/water mix! And you could make an effort to choose older rather than younger ginger root.
So there you go... I hope that helps you as much as it has helped me!
Love
Nadia xxx
Why Ginger Chai Can Curdle
