home Makeup and visage Pigeons, is there bird milk? Is there bird milk and why are the candies called that? You didn't even know that these animals also give milk

Pigeons, is there bird milk? Is there bird milk and why are the candies called that? You didn't even know that these animals also give milk

JSC "Bird's milk" exists outside of patent legislation

Almost all of us have tried a cake or pastry called “Bird's Milk”. Is it known why the confectionery product received such a strange name? Agree, if you think about it, all appetite disappears.

But, oddly enough, bird's milk is mentioned in the myths and tales of many peoples of the world. Long ago, when women got tired of their lovers, they demanded that they bring them bird's milk. Unhappy lovers rushed into the desert and died there from thirst and loneliness, believing illusions and mistaking deception for reality. According to legend, birds of paradise fed their chicks with ornithological milk. If a person tried it, he immediately became invulnerable to weapons and any diseases...

Although, as we know, birds are not mammals. They do not feed their chicks with milk. Therefore, the expression “bird's milk” began to mean something unprecedented, something that does not exist in reality, impossible.

However, scientists have proven that bird milk still exists, although not in all birds. For example, pigeons, goldfinches, crossbills, emperor penguins, and flamingos have it. True, it is not at all like the cow’s milk we are used to, but rather resembles liquid cottage cheese. These birds feed their chicks for a very short time - no more than a month. So bird milk is very rare in the feathered world.

The delicacy began to be produced starting in 1968 at the Rot-Front factory as an experiment. But due to the complexity of the technology, these were tiny batches. Oddly enough, back in those years the recipe documentation for Bird's Milk was not approved by the USSR Ministry of Food Industry for some reason. A case of curiosity, isn’t it a strange coincidence of circumstances?

The Bird's Milk cake was created by the legendary pastry chef of the Prague restaurant, Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik. A patent was even issued in 1982 for the invention of this cake. The cake is unique in its own way.

It must be no coincidence that the so-called confectioners of the Ptichie Moloko factory, located in the southwest of Moscow, chose this name for their products.

We reluctantly move on from ancient and Soviet legends about bird’s milk to current reality. Quite harsh. Currently, there are more and more cases of dissatisfied customers filing complaints to various authorities, who were flattered by the once famous for their quality, and are now pleasantly pleased only by the low price of the cakes kindly made by Bird's Molok CJSC. Characteristic symptoms: nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, elevated (37.5-39°C) body temperature, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), low blood pressure, fainting, muscle cramps. It’s sad to admit, this indicates only one thing – poisoning.

It’s good that to this day, since Komsomol times, there have not been a shortage of conscious and active citizens who report signals about inappropriate quality of products to the supervising organizations. After all, it’s true, what can a simple seller of the Ptichye Moloko company store answer in response to a complaint about poisoning by the cake she sold yesterday? Our products are high quality! - she answers proudly, sending out the impudent (from her purely professional point of view) visitor.

So what is quality? According to now almost forgotten encyclopedias, quality is a philosophical category that expresses a set of essential features, features and properties that distinguish one object or phenomenon from others and give it certainty. The quality of an object or phenomenon, as a rule, is not reduced to its individual properties.

So what properties of Bird's Milk cakes make the “lucky ones” complain again and again and submit for independent examinations? How much money does the general director of Ptichye Moloko, Klava Borovkova, spend annually to ensure that lawsuits do not go to court and information is not leaked to the media? What has changed in the work of the enterprise over thirty years (that is how many years K. Borovkova has been warming his chair)?

Everyone knows that the modern idea of product quality is based on the principle of the most complete fulfillment of the requirements and wishes of the consumer, and this principle should be the basis for the manufacture of any product. The consumer of a product can be either an individual simple person or groups of people, but what if one day a separate group of “difficult” people becomes a consumer of the product? Perhaps then we will get answers to the above questions.

In other matters, as we know, not all products related to poultry milk have negative development trends. Not more than a year ago, a certificate of registration of a new trademark, on the basis of which the company will be able to produce candies “Bird Warbler-Zarya,” was recently presented to the Zarya confectionery factory. Although this does not mean that Kazan confectioners have mastered a new type of sweet product. The fact is that the production of the “Bird's Milk” sweets beloved by many Kazan residents was patented by the Moscow confectionery factory “Rotfront”, which means that other Russian confectionery factories (are they all???) no longer have the right to produce these products. In this regard, many confectioners in the country had to resort to a trick - to carry out a kind of “re-registration” of sweets, giving them a different name.

As we can see, Ptichye Moloko CJSC exists outside of patent legislation.

Perhaps Bird's Milk decided to use a different trick? Quality trick? After all, the company now produces approximately 32% of the number of cakes produced in the late 80s. Although production capacity and personnel (although it has been reduced from 205 to 60 people) allow us to produce more. These 145 unexpectedly laid off people must have worked in the Quality Control Department.

The company sells approximately a third of its finished products to wholesalers and sells two thirds through its store. “We sell up to 1,000 cakes a day in our store, and a regular retail store can sell 40 cakes, no more. This difference in the number of products sold is explained by the fact that in our store we sell cakes at a set price without any markup, and entrepreneurs and stores can set any markup, so in some stores the markup reaches from 25% to 40%. At one time we had an advertisement in our store that our products were also sold in other retail outlets. But, nevertheless, all buyers. they come to us just the same,” says Borovkova. She kindly remains silent about complaints.

“Over the many years of operation of the factory, a lot has changed in the assortment; now not only Bird’s Milk, but other confectionery delights come off the assembly line. Some of the products had to be improved. So, today “Bird's milk” is produced in two weight categories: 1.3 kg and 650 g. This was done due to the decreased purchasing power of the population,” this is how the management of Bird’s Moloko propagandizes. So this means that in the country as a whole the purchasing power of the population is growing, but in a single store specializing in the sale of confectionery products it is decreasing? And how tempting it was to change the recipe, leaving only the previous name. No wonder the recipe is kept in the strictest confidence.

To summarize, I still want to ask a question - Whose milk is it, Klavdia Nikolaevna? Pigeons? Shcheglov? Klestov? Emperor penguins? Or are flamingos definitely pink?

Also, the question remains unanswered: why is the glorious name “Bird's Milk”, known to us for more than thirty years, disgraced? After all, an illegally used name does not guarantee the quality and “same” taste of the product. However, this is already a question that the relevant authorities should deal with, and we would like to think that all this is far from us, but in this case we are afraid for the most important sweet tooth - children.

bird's milk mentioned in fairy tales of many peoples.

Birds of paradise feed their children with this food. A person who has tasted such a delicacy becomes invulnerable to diseases and any weapons. For a long time, people believed that this was just a fiction, like a flying carpet or living water.

Scientists who have studied wild pigeons have proven that this is not so. As it turned out, pigeon chicks could not be fed seeds of various plants.

How does a dove do it? Fat accumulation occurs on the walls of the pigeon's crop during hatching of chicks. After the chicks hatch from the eggs, a fatty mass appears on the walls of the crop, which contains the vitamins the chicks need.

One by one, the parents begin to regurgitate pieces of this mass and feed it to their chicks.

Moreover, each bird raises only one chick, and pigeons have more than two chicks. For three weeks, pigeons feed their children with the food they need, which resembles cottage cheese. This is called bird's milk, about which so many different legends have been written.

Bird's milk is an unreal reality)

BIRD'S MILK

We are all familiar with these candies with a delicate white or yellow filling inside.

Have you ever wondered where this name came from and whether bird's milk actually exists?

It turns out that such a “product” does not exist in nature, because birds are not mammals and cannot feed their chicks with milk.

But why then did this expression appear in our language?

Yes, for a reason!

In fact, the concept of “bird milk” means a white mass, similar in consistency to liquid cottage cheese, which is formed in the crop of pigeons and penguins during the hatching period.

It has nothing to do with milk, but this word is well suited to describe such healthy food that female birds feed their chicks until they grow up.

This process does not last long - no more than a month. So bird milk is very rare in the feathered world.

In addition, bird's milk is mentioned in the myths and traditions of many peoples of the world.

Long ago, when women were tired of their husbands and lovers, they demanded to bring them bird's milk. According to legend, birds of paradise fed their chicks with bird's milk. If a person tried it, he immediately became invulnerable to weapons and any diseases...

Unhappy men rushed into the desert and died there from thirst and loneliness, believing illusions and mistaking deception for reality.

This is bird's milk

Under the name "Bird's milk" you can prepare a whole lunch.

We prepare the Bird's Milk salad, Bird's Milk cutlets and Bird's Milk cake.

Salad "Bird's milk"

The whole trick of this salad is that it is prepared by grating the ingredients on a grater, holding it suspended (except for onions)

The salad turns out very tender, airy, real bird's milk

Cutlets "Bird's milk"

You need to take 2 boiled eggs and 100.0 cheese, grate everything - this is the filling for cutlets

Prepare the batter: beat 2 eggs and 100.0 mayonnaise, add soda on the tip of a knife and 1 cup of flour

We make a flat cake from the minced meat, put the filling and 10.0 butter on top. Forming a cutlet. Dip in batter and fry in vegetable oil

Cake soufflé “Bird's milk”

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of gelatin in water (as indicated on the bag), strain and mix with 1 glass of apple juice.

Bring to a boil, but do not boil. Cool

2) Grind 2 curd cheeses, 200.0 each, with 1 tablespoon of sour cream, and separately grind 200.0 butter with 1 glass of sugar.

3) Beat 3 egg whites with 0.5 cup sugar, while continuing to beat, pour in gelatin, then gradually add butter and sugar, then cheese curds

Pour the resulting mass into the mold, smooth it out and fill it with chocolate glaze.

To do this, melt a chocolate bar with 2 tablespoons of milk in a water bath.

Place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and the cake is ready!

In childhood, many people asked this question when they first tried Bird’s Milk candies. But what is it really like: do birds have milk, how is it obtained, and where do candies get their name? We will answer these questions and tell you about other interesting facts in our article. Believe me, you will learn a lot of new things for yourself!

Why were the candies called “Bird's Milk”?

Children often wonder what kind of milk birds give. Adults know for sure that birds do not give any milk, and there is definitely none in candy. But it is difficult to answer where this name comes from. The treat appeared in Poland in 1936 under the name “Ptasie Mleczko”. And only in the 1960s the Rot Front factory launched production in the USSR, simply by translating “Bird's Milk” into Russian. Many then thought that the name was metaphorical and associated with something very rare and valuable, since such candies were in terrible short supply. In fact, the creators were based on old legends and works of ancient Greece. They mention the milk of birds of paradise, which gives almost immortality and is considered a delicacy (ambrosia) of the Gods.

For example, in the old days, when young men wooed girls, they were asked to bring unheard-of gifts as a sign of love. The more incredible the gift, the greater the chance of winning the beauty’s heart. But, if the girl didn’t like the groom, then she asked him to get her bird’s milk. Thus, she made it clear that he had no chance of becoming her chosen one. This legend is found among many peoples. There is even a proverb: “The rich have everything, except bird’s milk.” In this way, candy manufacturers wanted to attract the attention of consumers, thereby emphasizing the value and sophistication of taste.

But do we know enough about birds to say with certainty that they cannot produce milk? Let's figure out this difficult issue together!

The whole truth about bird's milk

In fact, scientists have proven that some birds can produce milk that is completely different from what we are used to. Bird's milk consists of protein (about 60%), fat (up to 36%), a small amount of carbohydrates (up to 3%), a number of minerals and antibodies, but does not contain lactose and calcium. But like mammal milk, it contains antioxidants and immunomodulatory proteins that are important for the growth and development of young animals.

This type of milk is also called goiter or pigeon milk. This secretion is secreted by goiter cells or special glands of the esophagus and stomach (depending on the type), and resembles a yellowish cheesy mass. It is noteworthy that goiter cells respond to hormones during lactation similar to the mammary gland. The curdled substance is created from fat-filled cells (at the site of the crop, where food usually accumulates to soften before digestion), which break open and regurgitate this substance to nourish the offspring. Birds differ from other animals in that they do not have sweat glands, but they do have the ability to store fat in their outer skin cells (keratinocytes), which act as sweat glands. It was discovered that the “lactation” of birds is associated with this ability of their fat cell division. Interestingly, both males and females can feed their offspring with “bird milk”. Jelly is characteristic of representatives of the pigeon family, a number of parrots, flamingos and imperial penguins.

This process is best studied by example. pigeons. They usually lay two eggs. Soon after the chicks hatch, the parents begin to feed them nutritious milk, which begins to be produced two days before the offspring appear. After which, after a week, the chicks switch to eating crushed “adult” food, such as seeds, fruits, insects and other invertebrates. However, if one of the eggs falls out of the nest for some reason, or one chick is born dead, then the remaining chick gets all the “bird’s milk” and therefore grows even faster. By the end of the first week after hatching, this chick will hardly differ in size from its parents. And here is the female penguin lays only one egg, which the male penguin warms with the warmth of his body for two long months until the long-awaited chick appears. After the birth of the offspring, the caring father nurses it for another month and feeds it with milk along with the mother, who gets food. U flamingo The feeding process is generally amazing. Their nutritious secretion also contains hemoglobin, which indicates the presence of bird blood in the milk, and this gives it a reddish color.

Interestingly, a number of studies were conducted in 1952 when chickens were fed pigeon milk, and their growth rate increased by as much as 38%! At the same time, attempts to reproduce goiter milk artificially did not lead to success. The chicks fed by analogue either died or were too weak. Accordingly, this nutrient has also been shown to contain certain unique antibodies.

You didn't even know that these animals also give milk

We know how important milk is for babies. This is a rich combination of nutrients that are necessary for the development of the child and his immunity. In the entire animal kingdom, only one group of animals produces milk for their offspring: mammals, to which we belong. Mammalian milk is considered to be real milk. However, some living organisms have secretions that closely resemble milk and are intended for feeding. This "false milk" is not like cow's or human milk, and it is not produced in the same way. But it serves the same purpose: it feeds baby animals until they are old enough to take care of themselves.

Cockroaches. Yes, you heard right: some cockroaches feed their young with milk. One such example is the beetle cockroach Diploptera punctata, or Pacific cockroach.
Most female cockroaches lay their eggs in a sac of sorts that comes out of their body before the eggs hatch. After the young cockroaches hatch from their eggs, they scramble to find food. But the female Pacific cockroach beetle takes a different approach to childcare. Instead of hatching from the clutch, the embryos develop entirely within her body. Once the embryos have fully formed digestive organs, they begin to drink the “milk” produced by special crystals (cells) and quickly gain weight. Because young cockroaches receive a lot of food while still in their mother's body, they are more developed and mature at the time of birth. This interesting feature of these cockroaches attracted the attention of Indian scientists. The crystals of these cockroaches turned out to contain a full range of nutrients: fats, proteins, carbohydrates and amino acids. This product has a high calorie content, so it would be useful in conditions of overpopulation and during long-distance space flights. Researchers are now trying to reproduce the substance in the laboratory.

False scorpions, or false scorpions. Like Pacific beetle cockroaches, female false scorpions produce a milky-like substance. But it is not released from her womb, but from the ovaries. The female carries her fertilized eggs in a special pouch attached to her abdomen. Once the babies hatch, they remain in the sac and feed on their mother's milk. Even after they leave the pouches, they continue to ride on their mother's back until they are old enough to live on their own. Pseudoscorpions are 2-3 mm long. They are often found in rooms with dusty books, which is why they are sometimes called "book scorpions."

Discus fish. Their milk is actually a mucus-based secretion that covers the bodies of both parents. It is rich in proteins and antibodies. A few days after the young fish hatch from their eggs, they attach themselves to their parents and feed on the mucus secretions that cover their bodies. During the first two weeks, they spend most of their time feeding their young. Feeding lasts 5-10 minutes, after which one of the parents dumps the young on the other parent. From the third week, parents stop feeding. They swim away for a longer period of time, forcing the young fish to look for other food sources. This example is very similar to how mammals care for their children.

Legless African amphibians, or caecilians (caecilia). Vertebrate amphibians are very similar to worms. Most species guard their eggs until they hatch and then abandon them. But caecilians native to southeastern Kenya have developed a more complex parenting style. When the offspring hatch from their eggs, they are completely immature and are completely dependent on their mother. To feed her babies, the female caecilian produces a thick layer of protein and fat on the top layer of her skin. Newborns clean this layer of skin using special suction cups that look like small teeth. The layer with nutrients is so dense that after a week the young individual increases in length by about 11%. This takes a huge toll on the mother. After one week of feeding, she loses about 14% of her weight.

The world around us still hides many mysteries. It would seem that it is well studied, but something new is always discovered. Did you know that some birds actually have milk?

Do birds give milk?

The main requirement for nutrition for gastritis is one thing - food should not irritate the gastric mucosa, but there are some nuances associated with the acidity index. Often those foods that are in the taboo zone for gastritis with high acidity are allowed with low acidity. The same principle applies to sweets, and in order to answer the specific question of whether “Bird's milk” can be used for gastritis, it is necessary to carefully consider all its ingredients.

Main components of an airy treat

To prepare the base of Bird's Milk sweets, you need egg whites and sugar. For taste, you can add vanillin, and for hardening - gelatin or its plant analogue agar-agar. For fudge, either melted ready-made dark chocolate bar mixed with butter is used, or fudge is prepared from cocoa.

Relation between the recipe and the list of allowed products

In order to understand whether Bird's Milk candies can be used for gastritis with high acidity, it is necessary to correlate all the components of the treat with the table of permitted and prohibited foods. So, sugar, especially with high acidity, is even beneficial. Eggs are considered one of those foods that can generally treat stomach inflammation. Crude protein envelops and soothes the mucous membrane, promotes rapid healing of wounds and erosions. Since the process of preparing the Bird's Milk soufflé does not include heat treatment, you can replace chicken eggs with quail eggs, in which case the risk of intestinal diseases is reduced to zero. Gelatin is also allowed for gastritis.

Chocolate fudge should be made from dark chocolate and a minimum amount of butter, since a diet for gastritis involves excluding foods with high fat content from the diet. You should be very careful when choosing chocolate for sweets. There should be no additives or flavor stabilizers. Do not use white or milk chocolate. Regarding butter, the questions rather relate to its quality. The ideal option is homemade butter. This dairy product should be abandoned only during an exacerbation of the disease.

Product requirements

Bird's Milk candies for gastritis are allowed, like marshmallows or marshmallows, but there are several requirements for the quality of the product.

Freshness. For diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, you should pay attention to the expiration date of the product. It is advisable to prepare the candy yourself, so you will be sure of its freshness.
Compound. Even if the labeling of a factory product does not include foods and additives, this does not mean that they are not there. With gastritis, all these taste aids are not needed at all, and in addition they can provoke an attack of the disease.
Quantity. The daily allowed dose of sweets is 50-100 grams, so do not overuse sweets. As you can see, there are no special contraindications, you just need to monitor the quality of the product.
Storage. Since stabilizers are not used when making sweets at home, the shelf life of sweets does not exceed two days. They should be stored in the refrigerator.