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Humanised Milk for the Tropics

A paste-like milk product made from sugar milk, dried milk, cod liver oil, and water, cooled and kept in a cool place.

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 ↓

Humanised Milk for the Tropics

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald a thick breakfast cup to retain heat.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix Sugar Milk and Dried Milk in the dry state.

  2. Pour in 2 to 3 ounces of boiling water and stir quickly.

  3. Beat into a paste with a clean, scalded fork.

  4. Add Cod Liver Oil and beat with the other ingredients.

  5. Add boiling water to reach a total of 4 ounces and beat into an emulsion.

Cool and store

  1. Cool rapidly in running water and keep loosely covered in a cool place.

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. Milk + livertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together288 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + livertop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together177 recipes

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

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

Sugar of milk
Provides sweetness and dissolved solids that give the mixture body.
Dried milk
Adds milk proteins and solids that give creaminess and a richer texture.
Cod liver oil
Supplies fat that gives richness and must be dispersed evenly to stay stable.
Boiling water
Dissolves the powders and liquefies the mixture so the fat can be emulsified.

The step that matters

Beat the oil into an emulsion. Fat and water do not mix on their own. Thorough beating breaks the oil into tiny droplets suspended in the liquid, so it stays evenly distributed rather than separating into a greasy layer.

“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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