The ebb and flow of food trends rotate into popularity as quickly as a viral video. And while we sometimes think a fad diet is something of a 1980s concoction, you’d be shocked to learn otherwise. Some diets have been around way longer and look a bit different than the diet foods of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Milk soup anyone? Max Miller of Tasting History encountered this sweet and creamy concoction when reading an 18th-century diet book and decided to share it on his cooking channel.
In the Georgian Era, Doctor George Cheyne was one to know of diets, having been almost 400 pounds and yo-yo-ing himself on a series of food plans. Armed with his personal experience and knowledge of the health issues that plagued his upper-crust rich clients, he went to work. Cheyne concluded that the alcohol-heavy, fatty fortified foods of the dandy class did little to improve the mind and status of the body.
And while many would protest and would probably contest some of the doctor’s recommendations, his vegetarian, mild exercise, and eight-hour sleep lifestyle regime doesn’t sound too bad by today’s standards. The problem with Cheyne’s work is that he gives suggestions but doesn’t provide recipes — like milk soup. Which is when Max went searching for a period-appropriate and Doctor Cheyne-approved milk soup recipe.
There are both sweet and savory versions of milk soup, and there are some parts of Europe where it’s still eaten today. However, finding a recipe that followed Cheyne’s no meat and no alcohol stipulations was quite difficult for Max.
This sweet version is simple and is just what Doctor Cheyne ordered! You start by pan-frying bread in a skillet with butter and then drying the slices out further on a sheet pan in the oven. You may think it’s an extra step to toast bread which will get soggy in the soup, but the almost burnt bread slices add some flavor to the otherwise neutral broth.
There’s only some brown sugar and cinnamon added to the milk. Once it gets warm, you add in two egg yolks, but don’t just drop them in, or you might end up with a clumpy egg drop-like soup. In a separate bowl, whisk some of the hot milk into the egg yolks — this step (called tempering) will bring the eggs up to temperature and prevent the protein from firming up too fast.
The next step is adding the crispy bread into the soup, letting it simmer until the bread (once again) softens. And while you may think that this doesn’t sound appetizing, you’d be fooled! Max described the soup as tasting like the milk left over after eating that beloved cinnamon-sugar-flavored toast cereal. Brown sugar lightly sweetens the milk while the cinnamon perfumes everything with a warm, comforting taste — doesn’t sound too bad, right?
While this may not be diet food in any sense by modern standards, it doesn’t sound off-putting in the least. If I want to have cereal in colder weather, this is the way to try having seasonally appropriate cereal.
You can watch the full video by clicking the link below.