I wonder if a couple of clean marbles at the bottom of the pan would do the trick as well.

A spoon in the pan will help.

The simplest solution is a larger pot. It won't make the milk boil any more slowly but it will contain the bubbling up. Use your biggest soup pot or a lobster pot.

Am I the only one who's curious as to why you'd want to boil milk?

You're never the only one! I'm curious, too.

@ NUTMEAGHAN, I don't think the issue is the milk boiling but rather the milk boiling "over" the pot and making a mess on the stove.

For the question, you either need a larger pot or the patience to keep an eye on the milk & heat. It's less than 10 mins to boil milk.

Oops - why you'd boil milk --- Helps the thickening in bases used for Ice Cream, sauces like Bechamel, Puddings etc. People also boil milk to reduce it's fat content.

Plus, it's more of a problem than boiling over water, because it's much grosser to clean? The spoon sounds like a great tip!

I think marbles might just roll around, you'd want something flat-ish, the spoon is a good idea!

Plus, with the marbles you'd have to pour the milk through a collander or strainer or take it out with a spoon which could be a pain.

If I need hot milk or scaled milk for a recipe I am almost always microwave it. Three minutes to get it almost there unsupervised. I then supervise for the last 30 seconds or dump it in the pan as is.

I always boil over milk in the pan otherwise.

um, watch the stove and pull the pot off the fire or lower the heat when it starts to bubble up? seriously?

I have the same problem! I make rice pudding quite often and no matter how much I tell myself to watch the damn milk, almost 9 times out of 10, the milk will boil over. And that's using a heavy, large dutch-oven, and it still boils over. So it's way easy to do.

I have a clip-on thermometer. I keep it hooked over the edge of the pot and turn off the heat before the milk reaches 180F (that's when it starts bubbling up and overflowing).

I've had this issue when scalding milk for yogurt.

I've had glass marbles crack and splinter just from washing them in the hottest water out of my sink, so using those sounds a little dubious to me.

I am also in the sass mouth jerky camp of, Just don't walk away from the stove, geez. Set a timer for a few minutes under the amount of time you'll think it'll take to start simmering. Do your multitasking prep-work in a way that you can keep an eye on the pot.

Seriously? Just keep an eye on the pot.

I'm with @JudiAU -- use the microwave. For panna cotta or custard, the microwave is faster, cooler than a burner, and less likely to boil over. Plus, you can heat the milk in the bowl and so save washing an extra pot.

If you are boiling milk for a recipe, I'm sure it's not boiling, but bring to a boil.

In any case, you just keep an eye on it.

A thermometer is the best option. 140F should be fine for most purposes, it will start to scald at 160-180, depending on the pot, heat source, etc.

A spoon in the pot really helps. It breaks the surface and it doesn't boil over.
Richard

When It comes to cooking with milk, I've always been told cook in something twice the volume of the liquid being used.

I boil milk to make yogurt. That's why. And it's a LARGE quantity of milk so I really don't want to stand there and wait for it to boil. I check in on it, but it takes a while! And it has to boil for 5 minutes AFTER it comes to the boil.

So there are some reasons why you don't want it to boil over.

Yes, I boil milk to make yogurt too. Even though you keep an eye on it, it can be very quick and sudden to overflow creating a mess.

so i use one of those milk guards and i love it.