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Preparation of Buttermilk for Infants

A simple infant buttermilk made by thickening buttermilk with flour and sugar, then sterilized and refrigerated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Preparation of Buttermilk for Infants

Ingredients

Directions

Make the buttermilk

  1. In a saucepan, combine buttermilk, rice or wheat flour, and sugar.

  2. Stir constantly while slowly bringing the mixture to a boil.

  3. Pour the hot mixture into sterilized bottles and stopper with sterile cotton.

  4. Refrigerate until needed.

Adjust and use

  1. When appropriate, modify with cream and sweet milk as needed.

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. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

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

  3. Buttermilk + ricetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Provides the main liquid and tangy milk base of the mixture.
Rice or wheat flour
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving it a fuller body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and provides energy-rich carbohydrate to the mixture.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a boil. Stirring constantly while heating keeps the flour from settling and scorching on the bottom of the pan, and lets it thicken evenly. Starch needs to be fully dispersed in the liquid to thicken properly, so slow heating with steady stirring prevents lumps and burnt flavour.

“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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