Name: Milk Shake
Ingredients: 2 cups sweet milk; syrup or strained juice from rich preserve; a few drops of vanilla (optional); 1 teaspoon orange juice (optional); pounded ice

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

2 cups sweet milk
syrup or strained juice from rich preserve
a few drops of vanilla (optional)
1 teaspoon orange juice (optional)
pounded ice

Directions

Fill a large glass two-thirds full of sweet milk.
Sweeten with syrup or strained juice from a rich preserve.
Add a few drops of vanilla or 1 teaspoon of orange juice if desired.
Fill the glass with pounded ice.
Place the mixture in a shaker and shake well.
Alternatively, pour from one glass to another until well mixed.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,371 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,855 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,696 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Syrup + orangetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,179 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet milk: Forms the liquid base and provides the creamy body of the drink.
Syrup or strained preserve juice: Adds sweetness and flavour to the milk.
Pounded ice: Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly as it melts.

“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.