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Mjólkursoðinn Lundi

A soup made by simmering puffins in milk and water, finished with a butter‑flour sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mjólkursoðinn Lundi

Time1-2 hours

Ingredients

  • The sauce

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Skin or carefully pluck and singe puffins, then remove innards and discard.

  2. Use breasts alone or whole birds.

  3. Wash well in cold water and rub with salt, inside and out.

  4. If using whole birds, truss them.

  5. Draw strips of bacon through the breasts.

Cook the birds

  1. Brown the birds on all sides, and stuff the birds tightly into a cooking pot.

  2. Heat milk and water and pour over puffins.

  3. Bring to the boil and cook on low for 1-2 hours, testing for softness.

  4. Turn the birds occasionally.

  5. Remove from cooking liquid and keep warm while preparing sauce.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt butter and stir flour into it like making white sauce.

  2. Strain cooking liquid and gradually add to butter/flour mixture.

  3. Add colouring and spices to taste, and redcurrant jelly/cream if using.

  4. Serve with boiled and/or caramelized potatoes and lightly boiled vegetables, like carrots, peas and brussels sprouts.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Puffins
Provide the meat that becomes tender during slow simmering in the cooking liquid.
Smoked bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat that flavours the lean birds as they cook.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form the roux thickening the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth white-style sauce.
Milk
Enriches the cooking liquid, adding body and a mild creamy flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the birds gently. A rolling boil toughens meat and can dry the birds out. Simmering on low for the stated time lets connective tissue soften while the meat stays moist.

“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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