Lactic acid

Acide lactique

What it is

Scheele found it in sour milk in 1780 and the name stuck, but nothing in the bottle has been near a cow: it is made by fermenting glucose with lactobacilli. It is the acid of yoghurt, sauerkraut and kimchi, which is why it sours without ever tasting of citrus.

In the kitchen

Keep a 10 percent solution and correct a butter sauce drop by drop off the heat: acidity rises without the lemon note that lemon cannot help adding. In a quick pickle it brings the brine to fermented pH in minutes rather than days.

Goes with

Butter Cream Yogurt Buttermilk Crème fraîche Sauerkraut Kimchi Cabbage

Same species

Ascorbic acid Malic acid Tartaric acid

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