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 ↓
Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Keep all utensils clean and pure.
Scald and rinse the milk pan with cold water before use.
Strain the milk into the pan as soon as possible after milking.
Allow the cream to stand for 24 hours before skimming, or at least 12 hours if needed sooner.
Skim the cream into a clean, scalded crock, not a tin vessel.
Do not cover the crock; it must have air.
Keep the crock in a cold place.
Churn the cream every second day in summer, or every third day at the longest.
Before churning, let the cream warm to about 65°F (18°C).
Scald the churn, butter paddle, and bowl thoroughly before use.
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 + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
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