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Alum Whey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Alum Whey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the cow's milk with alum until a curd forms.

  2. Strain off the liquid.

  3. Add spirit of nutmeg and syrup of cloves to the strained liquid.

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.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Spirit + clovetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Milk + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, spirit, nutmeg, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, spirit, nutmeg, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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