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EveryCow

Milk sweets

Melktert (milk tart)

A shallow pastry case filled with a light milk custard and dusted with cinnamon, made for every South African occasion.

Melktert, Afrikaans for milk tart, is a pastry case filled with a custard of milk, eggs, sugar and a little flour, set in the oven or on the stove and finished with a dusting of cinnamon. It is lighter and more milky than an egg custard tart. It has been made at the Cape since the Dutch colonial period and is at every church fete and family gathering.

What goes in

Milk: 44%44%Eggs: 11%11%Sugar: 11%11%Flour and cornflour: 6%Butter pastry: 22%22%Cinnamon: 6%6parts
  • Milk844%, Heated with a cinnamon stick.
  • Eggs211%, Set the custard.
  • Sugar211%, Sweetens.
  • Flour and cornflour16%, Thickens.
  • Butter pastry422%, Short or puff.
  • Cinnamon16%, Dusted on top.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Cook Bake a shallow pastry case blind.
  2. Step 2: Boil Heat the milk with butter and a cinnamon stick.
  3. Step 3: Cook Whisk eggs, sugar and flour, pour on the hot milk and cook until thick.
  4. Step 4: Set Pour the custard into the case and leave it to set.
  5. Step 5: Serve Dust with cinnamon and serve in slices.
  6. Milk: 44%44%Eggs: 11%11%Sugar: 11%11%Flour and cornflour: 6%Butter pastry: 22%22%Cinnamon: 6%
    Finished Melktert (milk tart), by share.

From the Cape

Milk tart is usually traced to the Dutch settlers at the Cape, whose recipes drew on the spice trade, hence the cinnamon. Cape Malay cooks shaped the region's baking too. Recipes vary: some bake the filling in the case, others cook it on the stove and pour it into a baked shell to set.

Milk tart day

South Africa marks National Milk Tart Day on 27 February, when bakeries and families make it and share it. Melktert is also a favourite at bake sales, braais and teatime. Small individual tarts, melktertjies, are common at weddings and funerals. Recipes are handed down in families and printed in church and community cookbooks.

Where it is used

TeatimeChurch fetesNational Milk Tart Day

The breeds behind it

Holstein FriesianMost numerous dairy breed in South Africa.AyrshireLong kept on South African dairy farms.

Also part of it, and being written: Jersey cattle (South Africa has one of the largest Jersey herds.).

More on EveryCow

No breeds here yet. New pages are added every day.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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