Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Make Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Ensure all vessels are clean and sweet before use.
Scald the wooden tub and ladle, then fill the tub with cold water.
Churn the milk until butter forms, being careful not to churn too fast or too slow.
Remove the butter from the buttermilk using the ladle, pressing it against the churn's side.
Place the butter in cold water and work out the remaining milk, changing the water until clear.
For each pound of butter, add 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt and 1 teaspoon of fine white sugar, mixing well.
Pack the butter into wooden or stone containers, covering with muslin and a lid to keep it fresh.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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