One of the more interesting processing problems in the baking industry occurred during and after World War II. During World War II, the US industry developed the dried milk product. It was made by a drum drying method. Essentially, the drum was heated and the dried milk scraped off as a powder. This powder was relatively insoluble [did not disperse well] and difficult to reconstitue into its fluid milk counterpart. Bakers used the milk in their formulations even though not easy. As the dairy food research and developer teams worked on the problem of dispersibility, they came up with another processing method to minimize the problem. They used a vacuum process to develop what is now sometimes called "instant milk". Essentially, the fluid milk is sprayed up into a heated chamber under partial vacuum. This allows for vaporization of the milk and the dried product will fall to the floor of the chamber for collection. The bakers were pleased and excited about this product until they realized that the resulting bread product was of low quality. The partial vacuum meant that lower temperatures than drum drying were used. The protein constituent that weakens gluten was not denatured. Now, irregardless of the milk, if you don't know it has been adequately heated, scald it.

Updated: Tuesday, May 22, 2007.