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Preparation of Milk

A liquid milk mixture made by diluting milk with water, adding cream, sugar, salt, and lactose for infants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Preparation of Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Strain the milk.

  2. Mix two parts water with one part milk.

  3. Add a little cream, sugar, and coarse sea salt to taste.

  4. For very young children, use lactose instead of sugar.

Bottle and sterilize

  1. Fill bottles with the mixture using patent fillers.

  2. Stopper the bottles and place them in the sterilizer.

  3. Steam sterilize for twenty minutes.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Provides the base liquid, protein, and milk fat that give the mixture its body.
Water
Dilutes the milk so its protein and mineral content is lower and closer to infant needs.
Cream
Adds extra milk fat for a richer, softer mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and a mild flavor that makes the mixture more palatable.
Lactose
Serves as a sugar substitute that is milk-derived and suited to very young children.

The step that matters

Steam sterilize for twenty minutes. Milk-based mixtures support rapid bacterial growth, so the full sterilizing time must be held to kill microbes and keep the bottles safe to store and feed.

“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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