Why it works: Milk and sugar 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 ↓
Kumys
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dissolve the sugar in the hot water.
Add the sugar water to the milk and let it cool to lukewarm.
Slowly stir in the yeast.
Ferment and bottle
Set the mixture in a warm place, stirring occasionally.
After 5-6 hours, when it is slightly sparkling, transfer it to stout bottles.
Tie down the corks and store the bottles in a cool place.
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.
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 liquid base and the nutrients the yeast ferments into a lightly alcoholic, fizzy drink.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast, and its conversion to gas and alcohol makes the drink sparkle.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol, giving the drink its effervescence and tang.
The step that matters
Bottling when slightly sparkling. Transfer at the right moment: if the mixture is bottled too early, it has not built enough carbonation, and if it ferments too long in warm conditions, pressure can build inside sealed bottles and cause them to burst. Cool storage slows further fermentation.
“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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