In message , shazzbat
writes

"K" wrote in message
...
shazzbat writes

"Eddy" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Fuschia & Shazzbat. Rhubarb! Hee, hee, hee. I would never
have imagined it. A surfeit of rhubarb to give me endless bellyache! I
had ulcers some years ago and rhubarb, which is very acidic, is one of
the things I have to avoid!

But the custard, being made almost entirely of milk, must be alkaline,
surely they cancel each other out PH-wise?

Is milk alkaline?

If it goes off, the sourness is lactic acid.

I'd have expected fresh milk to be more or less neutral. Googling gives:


A study of the pH of individual milk samples

Authors: TSIOULPAS, A; LEWIS, M J; GRANDISON, A S

Source: International Journal of Dairy Technology, Volume 60, Number 2,
May 2007 , pp. 96-97(2)

Abstract:
The pH of 285 milk samples was measured from early, middle and late stages
of lactation. In total, 35 individual cows were used in this study.

It was found that the average pH value for all individual samples analysed
was 6.63 ± 0.08. There was no significant difference (P 0.05) in mean pH
between early, middle and late lactation. The overall data and that for
early lactation displayed normal distributions.

Well I'll be damned. I've always thought of milk as alkaline, I don't know
why. I sit corrected.

Common wisdom is that milk is rich in Calcium. Calcium is an alkaline
earth metal. The impression that milk is alkaline probably derives from
this (and milk being less acidic than many other foods).

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley