WotD: whey

[muckefuck]

1. die Molke, das Käsewasser
2. de wei
3. el suero de leche
4. el sèrum de llet, el xerigot
5. le petit-lait
6. y maidd
7. an meadhg
8. serwatka
9. 유청 (乳清), 유장 (乳漿)
10. 乳清 rǔqīng

Notes: As with the previous entry, I'm fascinated with the proliferation of roots here. For "milk", we have basically three: PIE *melg-, PIE *ǵlákts, and MC *ɲuə̆'. "Cheese" would be about the same, with the majority of languages showing reflexes of Latin caseus (including Korean and colloquial Chinese).

But when it comes to the main by-product of cheese production, the roots almost double. German uses an ablaut variation of the *melg- stem, Dutch and English share derivatives of Common German *hwajan, popular Catalan and Spanish have a pre-IE root contaminated with Latin serum (which itself may share a PIE source with Polish), the popular French word can also mean "buttermilk" (more commonly babeurre or lait de beurre in Louisiana), and Welsh and Irish share Proto-Celtic *mesgā.

Until I looked into the subject, I never realised there were two kinds of whey: "sweet whey", the byproduct of using rennet to induce curdling, and "sour whey", which comes from using an acid. Or that, like buttermilk, it was once a common refreshment, often mixed with wine.

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

two kinds of whey: "sweet whey", the byproduct of using rennet to induce curdling, and "sour whey", which comes from using an acid.

Ah! I suppose that would explain the term "Süßmolkenpulver" often found in the list of ingredients of various processed food items.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Sounds immensely more appetising than the "whey solids" you often see on food product labels here.

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

In South Asia, fermented whey is also used to curdle milk sometimes. (See here or in Yamuna Devi's cookbook.) But that would have been the primary meaning of "sour whey" for me.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The recursivity of that hurts my head. Are you sure there isn't a Talmudic injunction against that?