Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Milk Diet
Ingredients
Directions
For breakfast, serve 1 pint of tea and 1 pint of milk with 12 oz. of meat.
For dinner, include ½ lb. of potatoes and 4 oz. of plain boiled white fish.
For supper, serve 1 pint of gruel and 1 pint of milk.
Repeat the tea and milk servings as needed throughout the day.
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 + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Tea + potatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Tea + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beer, tea, milk, meat, fish):
- Potatothe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beer, tea, milk, meat, fish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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