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Oxioxs IX Milk

A soup made by simmering peeled onions with butter, flour, salt, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oxioxs IX Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the small white onions and nearly fill a quart bottle with them.

  2. Mix the soft butter with the flour to form a paste, then add the salt and white pepper.

  3. Pour the cold milk into the bottle, then add the butter mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Cork the bottle and place it in a saucepan of cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil and cook for an hour or more.

  3. Serve the mixture in a hot covered dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Small white onions
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup as they soften and release their sweetness.
Soft butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour form a smooth paste and giving the soup a silky mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup, giving it a smoother, more body-filled texture.
Cold milk
Forms the liquid base, which turns creamy as the onions cook into it.

The step that matters

Bring the water to a boil and cook for an hour or more. The bottle is cooked gently in a water bath, so the milk heats slowly and evenly. Heating too fast or unevenly can scorch or curdle the milk and make the texture grainy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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