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You are here: Home / Science / Where does Soy Milk come from and Why does Soy Milk boil over so easily?

Where does Soy Milk come from and Why does Soy Milk boil over so easily?

June 7, 2020 by Karen Hill

Many people have often wondered how they milk those little soybeans, haven’t you?

Soy milk is made by soaking, boiling, grinding, and pressing the liquid out of soybeans. The liquid is called “milk” because it is white, but it bears as little relationship to cow’s milk as does milk of magnesia.

Soy milk is a tempting alternative to cow’s milk because it is higher in protein, lower in fat (and calcium), and free of cholesterol and lactose, which millions of lactose-intolerant people are incapable of digesting properly. When fortified with calcium and vitamins, it can be used as infant formula for the estimated 7 percent of babies in the United States who cannot digest cow’s milk.

Nevertheless, soy milk is far from a substitute for natural milk, either in flavor or in many culinary applications.

For one thing, the soybean-crushing process releases an enzyme, lipoxygenase, that catalyzes the oxidation of the beans’ unsaturated fatty acids into unpleasant-tasting compounds. While that doesn’t seem to bother Asian consumers, the enzyme must be deactivated for most Western palates by heating the “milk” to a temperature near its boiling point for 15 to 20 minutes.

Which takes us back to the stove.

Plants contain various sugar-related chemicals called glycosides that serve a wide range of functions. Some of the glycosides in soybeans are called saponins (from the Latin  sapo , meaning soap) because they foam up into suds when boiled.

They are the source of the boiling-over problem. But heat destroys the saponins, so a period of gentle heating will slowly eliminate the foaming tendency. That’s why you can get away with simmering soy milk but not with boiling it, unless you simmer it first.

Related Facts

  • What is the Difference between Whole Milk, Skim Milk, 2 Percent Milk, and 1 Percent Milk?
  • What Is the Difference Between Pasteurized Milk and Ultra Pasteurized Milk?
  • How is Goat’s Milk Different From Cow’s Milk and Are Goats Harder to Milk than Cows?
  • Where did Yogurt Come From, How is Yogurt Made, and What is it Made of?
  • Why does Water Boil and Can Water Get Hotter Than the Boiling Point?
  • What is the Difference Between Simmering and Boiling Water?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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