Recipe
Mastic milk pudding
- Herb:
- Mastic tree Pistacia lentiscus
- Method:
- Culinary use
- Plant part:
- Leaf
About 30 minIntermediateRecipe science profile
Procedure
- Grind 4–5 mastic tears in a mortar with a teaspoon of sugar to a powder — without sugar the resin would stick.
- In a pan whisk 60 g of cornflour and 100 g of sugar into 1 l of cold milk and bring to the boil, stirring, until thickened.
- Take off the heat, stir in the mastic powder and a teaspoon of rose water; stir until the resin dissolves.
- Pour into bowls, let cool and serve dusted with cinnamon or pistachios.
Extraction
- Herb:
- 4–5 mastic tears (about 1 g) per 1 l of milk
- Solvent:
- crush the resin with sugar and dissolve in hot milk; it does not dissolve in water
- Shelf life:
- 2 days in the fridge
- Target compounds:
- resin triterpenes (masticadienonic acid) and essential oil containing alpha-pinene disperse in the milk fat and provide a characteristic pine aroma
Notes
A Greek and Levantine dessert (akin to Turkish sakizli muhallebi). A kitchen recipe — mastic is a spice here; the traditional digestive use of the resin per EMA HMPC concerns chewing or taking the resin itself, not the dessert.
Why it works
Mastic is the resin of the mastic tree, with triterpenic acids and an oil rich in alpha-pinene; it does not dissolve in water, but in fat and when ground with sugar it disperses and lends the dessert a piny scent. The double-blind trial by Dabos et al. 2010 in 148 patients found, after 3 weeks of 350 mg of pure mastic three times daily, greater relief of functional dyspepsia symptoms than with placebo; EMA HMPC recognises the resin for traditional digestive use. The dessert contains a fraction of that dose.
Literature
- EMA HMPC: Mastiche — European Union herbal monograph — Traditional use for mild digestive complaints and externally for minor skin inflammation.
- Dabos KJ, Sfika E, Vlatta LJ, Frantzi D, Amygdalos GI, Giannikopoulos G (2010): Is Chios mastic gum effective in the treatment of functional dyspepsia? A prospective randomised double-blind placebo controlled trial. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 127(2):205–209 — 148 patients, 350 mg 3× daily for 3 weeks; relief of dyspepsia symptoms compared with placebo.
Related
Mastic tree — Herb card
Culinary use — Processing method detail