Hot Malted Milk with Salt and Pepper
Reader ratingsMalted milk stirred into hot water and seasoned with salt and pepper in place of sugar, with soda crackers on the side: the 1890s soda fountain’s savory mug.
- Recipe makes
- 1 mug, about 7 fl oz
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Hot malted milk in a wide china cup with a grind of black pepper, served with soda crackers.
The story behind the recipe
At the 1890s soda fountain, hot malted milk was seasoned like soup. De Forest Saxe’s 1894 guide for dispensers stirs malted milk into hot water and then adds salt and pepper “instead of sugar,” and A. Emil Hiss’s manual of 1897 does the same, offering celery salt as the other choice and soda crackers on the side.
From the sickroom to the counter
Saxe’s whole recipe fits in a line: two teaspoonfuls of malted milk, hot water, a stir with the spoon, then the salt and pepper. In 1894 he recommended it, seasoning and all, “for invalids and convalescents.”
Hiss’s mug three years later is just as savory, and he adds a detail Saxe leaves out: some dispensers stirred about two teaspoons of cream into it, though he didn’t think it necessary. With the soda crackers beside it, a customer could make a small, warm lunch of it. Celery salt, his other seasoning, was a familiar finish for hot fountain drinks, which put his alternative in good company.
Read more about this recipe
Two teaspoons or two tablespoons
The two sources disagree on the amount. Saxe’s two teaspoons of malted milk in a mug of hot water makes a very thin drink. This version follows Hiss’s two tablespoons, which gives an opaque, pale beige mug flecked with pepper. Malted milk powder is made from malted barley, wheat flour and milk, so the malt brings a little sweetness of its own. Buy plain malted milk powder, the kind sold for milkshakes, not a chocolate one.
Hiss’s measure sits close to the directions on a jar of the powder today, two to three tablespoons to a mug. The modern habit is to make it up with milk and drink it sweet, which gives a paler, creamier cup than this one. Without milk or sugar, the mug comes to about 80 calories, all of them from the powder.
From the same winter counter come Hot Ginger and Hot Egg Lemonade, and the full story is in What Did Soda Fountains Sell in Winter?
Two teaspoonfuls Malted Milk, add hot water, stir with spoon, then add salt and pepper instead of sugar. ...
Recipe makes: 1 mug, about 7 fl oz
Ingredients
For 1 mug, about 7 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 mug, about 7 fl oz.
- Malted milk powder2 tbsp
- Hot water7 fl oz
- Salt1/8 tsp
- Freshly ground black pepper1 pinch
- Soda crackers, to serve3
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 2 tbsp malted milk powder
- 7 fl oz hot water
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 3 soda crackers, to serve
Equipment
Kettle
Mug, about 8 fl oz
Long spoon
Pepper mill
Instructions
Put the malted milk powder in a mug and stir in a spoonful or two of the hot water to make a smooth paste.
Pour in the rest of the hot water a little at a time, stirring, until the powder has dissolved.
Season with the salt and black pepper, stir, taste and add a little more of either if you like.
Serve hot, with the soda crackers on a small plate.
Nutrition
80calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 mug, about 7 fl oz
Estimated from the label values for plain malted milk powder (120 calories in 3 tablespoons), for one mug, without the crackers.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
The amounts are for one mug; multiply them by the number of mugs.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Saxe uses 2 teaspoons of malted milk; Hiss, three years later, 2 tablespoons in an 8-ounce mug. For Saxe’s thinner version, use 2 tsp.
Hiss’s alternative seasoning is celery salt in place of the salt and pepper. Use 1/8 tsp.
Malted milk powder contains milk and gluten (from wheat and barley). Soda crackers are sold as saltines.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
De Forest W. Saxe, Saxe’s New Guide, or Hints to Soda Water Dispensers (Chicago: Saxe Guide Publishing, 1894), No. 199, p. 109; A. Emil Hiss, The Standard Manual of Soda and Other Beverages (Chicago: G. P. Engelhard, 1897), “Hot Malted Milk,” p. 164
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Hot Drinks
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Season
- Winter