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Drink

Koumiss

Fermented milk beverage made by adding yeast to warm milk and fermenting in champagne bottles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Koumiss

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the champagne bottles are warm and clean.

  2. In each bottle, add 1/6 of the yeast cake, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of hot water.

  3. Shake the bottle until the yeast is dissolved, then add 1½ pints of warm milk.

  4. Stir the milk constantly while heating it to blood temperature.

Ferment and chill

  1. Cork the bottles tightly and secure the corks with string or wire.

  2. Shake the bottles well and lay them on their sides at a temperature of 75°F to 80°F.

  3. Leave the bottles for 4 to 5 days, gently turning them over once each day.

  4. When the milk looks thick and smooth, place the bottles on ice for 24 hours to stop fermentation.

  5. Use only stout bottles to prevent bursting, and open carefully as the koumiss is highly effervescent.

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. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  2. Champagne + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Champagne + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and milk 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
Forms the base that thickens and turns tangy as it ferments.
Yeast
Ferments the milk, producing carbonation and a light fizz.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Cork the bottles tightly and secure the corks. Fermentation gives off carbon dioxide, which builds pressure inside the sealed bottles. A loose cork lets the gas escape and leaves the drink flat, while a weak seal or thin bottle can burst under the pressure.

“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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