It's a mystery. When you add acid to milk, it curdles, right? Why then can I make

cheezz

Well-known member
the mixture for lemon bars and it doesn't curdle? Eggs, sugar, flour, lemon juice, milk - it gets whisked and stands awhile but doesn't curdle!

 
The eggs act as an emulsifier? The flour helps to bind up liquids when cooked . . .

and since one immediately cooks it, it does not have time to separate, no? My best guess!

 
Curdling happens when the proteins in milk aggregate...

....together due to a change in pH (acidity). In fact, casein was first isolated when a chemist added acid to milk and the protein precipitated out.

that happens because charges that exist in the native protein get neutralized and now the protein molecules have a higher chance of interacting with each other, forming clumps

I am not a food chemist, but I think that once you add other things to the milk like eggs, flour - you are adding a lot of other proteins and chemical compounds that lower the probability of casein reacting with casein, so it stays "soluble"

 
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