Recipe of the week: madártej / floating island

Hungarian gastronomy has a lot of things to offer. Some recipes are more difficult to make, requiring hours of care and attention, while others you can whip up in just a few minutes. This week’s recipe belongs to the latter category. It is quick and easy to make, but that does not affect the quality – the result will not disappoint.

The term ‘madártej’ first surfaced around the middle of the 18th century. At first, it referred to an imaginary dish – literally, it means ‘the milk of birds’. They used it for something amazing but unattainable, until the 1830s, when the milk- and egg-based dessert took over the meaning. Interestingly, Austrians call this dessert ‘canary milk’, the Germans call it ‘snow milk’ while both the French and the English call it ‘floating island’.

Ingredients

1 l milk

6 eggs

150 g sugar

1 stick of vanilla / a packet of vanilla sugar

a pinch of salt

Instructions

Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites with a little bit of sugar. Mix the egg yolks, the rest of the sugar, the vanilla and the pinch of salt well together. Slowly heat the milk and add lumps of the beaten egg whites. Make sure to turn them over so that both sides can get done. Once they are cooked, remove them from the milk and let them cool. There are alternative ways of preparing the egg whites; you can use hot water or a microwave, too.