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 ↓
Arrow-root
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, bring 1 pint of water or milk to a boil.
In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of arrow-root with a small amount of cold liquid to form a paste.
Pour the boiling liquid over the arrow-root paste, stirring continuously.
Return the mixture to the heat and boil for a few minutes until it thickens.
Add a little salt or sugar to taste, if desired.
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.
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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
- Arrow-root
- Starch that swells in hot liquid and thickens the mixture as it boils.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling liquid over the arrow-root paste while stirring continuously. Stirring as the hot liquid goes in keeps the starch dispersed, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.
“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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