Name: Milk Shake
Ingredients: ½ cup shaved ice; 2 oz. flavored syrup; milk

Why it works: Syrup and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,143 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Milk Shake

Ingredients

½ cup shaved ice
2 oz. flavored syrup
milk

Directions

In a glass, combine the shaved ice and flavored syrup.
Fill the glass with milk.
Shake well and serve with straws.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Syrup + milktop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,143 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shaved ice: Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly as it melts, giving a cold, thin texture.
Flavored syrup: Adds sweetness and flavor, and helps the drink blend smoothly with the milk.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the drink and adds creaminess and body.

“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.