home-made soy milk curdles

[colours]

I have tried and tried and tried making my own soy milk and have nearly mastered the flavour. I have also managed to make it not taste 'beany' (steam dry beans for 20 minutes before you start, this inactivates the substance that makes the beany taste). But I just cannot seem to stop the milk from curdling when put in coffee/soup, etc. I think it has something to do with the pH because if I add the tinest bit of bicarb to my coffee (you can't taste it) it stops the curdling. But I've tried putting bicarb in the milk itself after I made it and it doesn't work, I think the bicarb loses its effectiveness in storage.

Has anyone got the same problem and sussed the solution? I think it needs a stable buffer. I've seen calcium phosphate in the ingredients of the commercial stuff and thought this might be what they use as a buffer. They could just use it to add calcium to the product. Either way I'm not sure where to get Calcium phosphate from. I do have a jar of calcium carbonate which you can get at chemists. Would this work? If so how much should I add?

[Ratty]

I've not tried making my own soy milk but I do drink the long life soya milk stuff (can't bear the overly "milky" taste of the stuff in the chiller cabinet!) and I know that this curdles if you put it into coffee which is too hot. My only solution has been to add it when the coffee has cooled a little. Seeing as I only drink tepid tea its not been a problem in this house though!

[Lady Willow]

I make my own soya milk and it curdles in coffee like shop bought soya milk does.

Nothing you can do about it really, except, as Ratty says, wait until the coffee is cooler before adding milk.

Do you make your own tofu? It's very easy and costs a fraction of the shop bought stuff.

[Brij]

My mum drinks shop bought UHT soya milk (or at least, she did), and I never noticed it curdling (and I do make the odd coffee for her!). Plus I went vegan for a while out here (long story) and the UHT soya milk I used never curdled, and I love hot tea!

Could you mock-up the UHT effect by boiling it for a while? Could that make any difference?

[colours]

I buy UHT stuff, quite a bit because I give it to my kids as well as using it myself. What I've noticed is it curdles in coffee but not tea and it seems to be the organic brands that curdle the most. Maybe there is an additive not allowed in the organic stuff that prevents the curdling.

I started to make it when I ran out of money, it is just so cheap to make and I was hoping that in spring I could grow the beans so I could make my own organic milk.

Haven't made tofu, I've usually used all the utensils in my drawers just making the milk and can't bear to start cooking again to make the tofu. Will definately give it a go though one day when I get a chance!

Thanks for your feedback.

I like to add oil to the milk to make it creamy like the shop bought stuff, but the oil settles on the top. Does anyone know of ways to homogenise the oil?

[Brij]

"The fat in milk normally separates from the water and collects at the top. Homogenization is the process of breaking up that fat into smaller sizes so that it no longer separates from the milk, allowing the sale of non-separating 2% and whole milk. This is accomplished by forcing the milk at high pressure through small orifices."
Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homogenisation]

The nearest I can think of is to put it through a food mixer or hand blender?