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Drink

To Partly Peptonise Milk for Infants

A drink made by partially peptonising milk with water and peptonising powder, then sweetening and adding fresh cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Partly Peptonise Milk for Infants

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the milk, cold water, and peptonising powder in a small clean jug.

  2. Place the jug in a basin of water as hot as your hand can bear.

  3. Let it stand for 20 minutes, shaking occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. After 20 minutes, remove from water and sweeten if desired.

  2. Add fresh cream and serve to the child.

  3. If the child is not ready to take it, boil the milk or set it in ice.

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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh cow's milk
Provides the base liquid and protein that the powder breaks down during standing.
Peptonising powder
Contains enzymes that partially break down milk proteins and fats, making the milk easier to digest.
Fresh cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel to the finished milk.

The step that matters

Keeping the jug in water as hot as your hand can bear. The enzymes in the powder work best at moderately warm temperatures. Water that is too hot can destroy them, while water that is too cool slows the breakdown, so the milk may not be properly peptonised after 20 minutes.

“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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