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Milk Shake

A chilled beverage made with milk, egg, sweetener, and optional flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Milk Shake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Milk Shake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour the milk and egg into a Mason jar.

  2. Sweeten to taste and add sherry, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt if desired.

  3. Ensure all ingredients are very cold before shaking.

  4. Optionally, use only the egg white and add crushed ice before shaking.

  5. Screw the top on tightly and shake vigorously up and down.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base and provides the creamy body of the shake.
Egg
Adds richness and body, and helps the shake foam and thicken when shaken.

The step that matters

Shake vigorously with everything very cold. Shaking mixes air into the liquid and the cold keeps the fats and proteins firm enough to trap that air. Cold ingredients produce a thicker, frothier shake, while warm ones give a thin, loose result.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sherry, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sherry, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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