Tuesday Teachings - Can You Make Plastic from Milk?

This is a great experiment. We have made chocolate milk and strawberry milk, but this time I decided to make plastic milk.

Supplies:
One cup of Milk
4 teaspoons of white vinegar
Glass measuring cup
spoon
strainer

Pour the milk into the glass measring cup and heat it in the microwave. You want the milk hot, but not boiling. We warmed it for two minutes in our microwave. Once it is hot, add the 4 teaspoons of vinegar and stir well for one minute.

Pour the milk through the strainer and into the sink. You will now see blobs of milk in your strainer. Let the blobs cool off and then rinse them with water while pressing them together.

I will tell you that I found it gross while stirring and straining but I love the texture of the completed project. Prior to that, it just reminded me of curdled milk.

Did you make plastic? Not exactly, since plastic is a bit more complicated. We made Casein. This is a by product of the protein in the milk coming in contact with the acid in the vinegar. The protein will not mix with the acid so instead, it forms blobs.