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Qishta

The skin that forms on scalded milk is lifted off and layered, over and over, until there is a slab of it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (double cream), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE SKIN THAT FORMS ON SCALDED MILK IS LIFTED OFF AND LAYERED, OVER AND OVER, UNTIL THERE IS A SLAB OF IT. That is the whole method and it takes a couple of hours of patience with nothing else to it. A wide pan of milk and cream is held just below a simmer; a thick wrinkled skin of fat and protein forms on the surface over ten or fifteen minutes; it is lifted off whole with a slotted spoon or a flat skimmer and laid in a dish; and the pan returns to the heat to form another. Eight or ten skins, laid one on another, chill into a dense buttery slab that can be cut into squares. It is not whipped, not thickened, and not cooked in any other sense. Stirring the pan at any point prevents a skin forming at all, which is why the one instruction that matters is to leave it alone.
  2. THE PAN IS WIDE AND THE LIQUID SHALLOW. The more surface area, the bigger each skin and the fewer rounds needed. A deep narrow pan gives a small thick skin and takes all afternoon.
  3. IT IS HELD JUST BELOW A SIMMER AND NEVER BOILED. The surface should barely move. A boil breaks the skin as it forms and churns the fat back into the milk; too cool and no skin forms at all. Somewhere around 80°C is the window.
  4. THE SKIN IS LIFTED WHOLE, FROM ONE EDGE. Slid under at the side of the pan and lifted in one piece rather than broken up and scooped. A torn skin gives a slab that crumbles instead of slicing.
  5. EACH SKIN IS LAID FLAT AND NOT PILED CARELESSLY. Into a shallow dish, spread out, each new one on top of the last. Folded or heaped they trap milk between them and the slab will not set firm.
  6. IT IS CHILLED OVERNIGHT BEFORE IT IS CUT. Six hours at least, uncovered for the first hour so steam escapes. Warm, it is a loose pile of skins; cold, it is one dense block.
  7. THE REMAINING MILK IS NOT WASTED. After eight or ten skins the pan holds thin milk with most of its fat removed. It goes into a milk pudding or into bread dough rather than down the sink.
  8. The milk and cream poured into a WIDE shallow pan.
  9. Brought to JUST BELOW a simmer -- the surface barely moving, around 80°C.
  10. LEFT ALONE 10 to 15 MINUTES, until a thick wrinkled SKIN forms. NOT STIRRED.
  11. The skin slid under from one edge and LIFTED OFF WHOLE, then laid FLAT in a shallow dish.
  12. The pan returned to the heat and the process REPEATED 8 to 10 TIMES, each skin laid flat on the last.
  13. The blossom water sprinkled between the last few layers if using.
  14. Left uncovered 1 HOUR, then chilled OVERNIGHT.
  15. TESTED: it should cut into clean squares and hold them. Crumbling means the skins were torn or heaped.
  16. Used in pastries and puddings, or eaten with honey and pistachios. Keeps 3 days.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes