‘Little Miss Muffet Sat on her Tuffet Eating her Curds and Whey”
But what are curds? This experiment lets us milk turn into into a solid and make plastic milk so we shall find out!
How to make Curds and Whey for Little Miss Muffet
•skimmed milk
•white vinegar
•microwave proof bowl or a pan and hob
•strainer/sieve
Method:
- 1. Add 4 teaspoons of white vinegar to one and half cups of skimmed milk.
- 2.Microwave the mixture for about a minute/ or heat over a stove to warm, or heat on the hob/stove
- 3. After a minute, the milk and vinegar will be separated into a liquid part (the whey) and the solid part (the curd)
- 4. Now, when you stir the milk, the solids become a “blobs.”
- 5. Strain the liquid off, you squeeze the blobs into one big lump. Squeeze out all the left over liquid.
Remember to ask an adult to help.
- 6. Let it cool off, and then you can play with it. It feels like rubber.
- You can form the blob into shapes. If you leave it out, it will harden. We called this plastic milk, but it’s not really plastic!
What are Curds and Whey?
Here’s what happened to the milk. By adding the vinegar, you created a chemical reaction which caused the milk to separate into two parts, a solid (the curds) and a liquid (the whey.)The protein in the curds is what makes it act like rubber.
This is a really simple experiment that gives you something very touchy and feely to do. It also makes a great sensory tool for little ones to play with. Have fun and let us know how your curds and whey turn out.
It you enjoyed this Little Miss Muffet activity, you’ll love our Humpty Dumpty and Incy Wincy Spider activities too!
Last Updated on October 15, 2019 by Emma Vanstone
Very cool! My kids would like this!
Found you on abcand123learning’s Show & Tell.
Thanks for coming to take a look. Have a go, it is so easy!
what a fun experiment! i know my girls would find this interesting. thanks for sharing!
Thanks you. Let us know if you try it. x
We did something very similar to this in my 7th grade science class and to this day I can’t eat cottage cheese (it looked too much like it).
Ha ha! I hope we don’t put anyone else off! x
If you add enough vinegar, could you make something that won’t go off – i.e. could this be a new “type of playdough” could you make something with it? I have random thoughts, you don’t really have to answer that.
Thank you for joining Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Hi. I love you site.
The Plastic milk that you have made is also known as paneer. Its a sort of cheese used in Indian cooking especially in the northern regions. We use lemon juice or vinegar to separate the milk. Its then, kept in a cheese cloth and hung, of which the whey drains out and the end product is allowed to become firm.
what chemical reaction occurs between milk and vinegar?