Making Blaand - Viking Fermented Alchoholic Milk Drink [Recipe] | Flavor Lab

I tried my hand at making an old fermented viking milk drink. I couldn't find a recipe that didn't use extra sugar, so I played around and got something to work. The results were interesting.

I hope you enjoy!

[robotslug]

I am Scottish and have heard about an alcoholic whey drink in passing through family, I will ask those that I can if they can find me any sort of information on it, the amount of home recipe books and cards my family has is astounding. Thanks for your video I enjoyed it. Good luck. I'll see what I can do.

[zuevshayd]

When you retaliate to being called a milk drinker

[edwardmonson]

Traditionally this was made with Kluyveromyces marxianus, which can utilize lactose directly. It can supposedly be found in some kefir grains.

[nateknudson]

It would make sense for Vikings to preserves as many calories as they could for winter.  Preserving milk fats into cheese makes for good long term storage and then fermenting the whey would've been a great way to keep more food stocks.  I've never fermented whey but I have saved it and used it in place of water for making bread and I would assume you could do the same with Blaand.  Subscribed.

[johndoe-uzkc]

And people wonder why the Vikings were so big and strong, even there beer's were protein shakes!!lol

[jasonsummit]

The only other alcoholic milk drink I have heard of is Kumis, fermented horse milk, drank by nomadic tribes in Mongolia.

[spaceman]

Fun fact pasteurization renders the lactase enzyme (which is naturally in milk) useless. But raw milk aka unpasteurized milk would still have the naturally occurring lactase enzymes, so there would be no need for them to use an exogenous source.

[KiwiFlavorMe]

Awesome description and video/audio quality. I like your enthusiasm. Not too much and also not boring. Thanks! Good luck to you

[dverkerk]

It’s 1 am . I need to wake up in 5 hours and I’m watching how to get drunk off of dairy

[perldog]

My first batch just started to show bubbles in the airlock. I stored my whey in the fridge for a week in a half gallon wide mouth mason jar. The mason jar sealed due to some kind of fermentation. I'm betting that natural fermentation of whey/milk turns the lactose into a sugar that ferments into alcohol as Mongolians are said to have a horse milk alcohol drink, then the Massai in Africa have the fermented cows milk drink.
For mine I just added honey and carob molasses and brewer's yeast. So I guess it's more of a mead... but getting a drink out of whey is aweseome. Good work!

[michaelbuttram]

I've read that whole goats milk is used because it will ferment with yeast. I've also researched a little more and found a recipe for a lactomel, with honey and whole goats milk mixed 50/50 water.

[nathangoodfellow]

The Norse Vikings used Honey for the Sugar but You can use Regular Sugar as well . Honey gives a better Flavor but Im a Mead guy and I LOVE HONEY! I make 5 gl Batches at a time and it measures out to around 11%-14% usually for me which also produces close to 4lbs of cheese. I flavor and make my cheeses with different flavors such as a Regular/ natural, Garlic, Onion, Basil, Medley Pepper and Dill .So what you have here my friend is a win win 2 for 1, You get alcohol that you can drink and Cheese to eat it with .It can be drank Young and Old I like it Young but if you age it for about 6 months it starts to take on a sweet earthy hardy flavor. Goats Milk is good too besides Cow Milk and the flavor changes alot .If you drink it Young it has a Vanilla coconut Flavor taste with a hint of Lime (But I use Lime to cured my cheese from they whey so that flavor is just a hint away) Try to use Raw Milk if you can its the best for your Blaand and makes for Better Cheese, Good luck and Slainte!

[hafasscooking]

Holy heckin' hell, I'm really enjoying your videos. What I enjoy most is getting to witness your learning experience of the process of making blaand which allows you to articulate the hows and whys instead of just making a video in the format of "add a cup of this, now a teaspoon of that, and now it's done!" 10/10, subbed for more.

[coconutfleetfever]

Cool project. The way you describe the flavour It sounds like this would be interesting stuff to cook with.

[Dandelion_Stitches]

Very interesting stuff! Might need to try that myself.

[kbvca]

Coming to this party a little late but I have been experimenting with whey wine and mead (honey wine). There are two kinds of whey - sweet and acidic. Acidic whey is very tart and this happens when you make soft cheeses using citric acid or vinegar to curdle the milk. Harder cheeses that use rennet are usually acidified using bacterial cultures that transform some of the lactose into lactic acid and this results in a sweeter whey (lactic acid has a higher pH than many of the other acids used for paneer or Mozzarella and the like). If you like sour beers this is a kind of wine analog - sour wine (mead) that allows lacto-bacilli to add some flavor complexity to the fermentation, and the flavors from the whey proteins. I have been experimenting by adding fruits (papaya), cocoa, and gruit herbs (the herbs used to balance the sweetness of beer before the Reformation and the adoption of hops).

[Imbatmn]

Raw milk already includes the enzymes to break down the lactase so most likely when they first invented it they probably just forgot about it and came back to find that it had turned into alcohol. Most likely the milk you're using is pasturized which killed off the enzymes to break down the sugar so you had to use tablets.

[spanishderp]

So traditionally they use honey with the whey and most people that make it today use wine yeast.

[joanignasi]

They have a drink like that in Portugal, they call it "licor de merda" literally liquor of shit, not too bad despite the name

[Kayenne]

My imagination : Vikings snowed in, worst winter ever. Run out of beer. Only six months before spring. Girls say "here drink milk instead". Guys side eye each other, and go "Thanks honey, we got this".