Why it works: Milk and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,143 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Milk Shake
Ingredients
Directions
Fill a glass two-thirds full with milk.
Sweeten with fruit syrup or a syrup made of boiled sugar flavored with vanilla, orange-flower water, or any liquor.
Fill the glass with cracked ice.
Shake together until well mixed.
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.
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Milk + syruptop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,143 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base and gives the shake its body and creamy mouthfeel.
- Fruit syrup
- Adds sweetness and flavour that dissolve readily into the cold milk.
- Cracked ice
- Chills the drink quickly and dilutes it slightly as it melts during shaking.
The step that matters
Shake together until well mixed. Shaking with ice chills the milk and blends the syrup evenly through it. Stopping early leaves the sweetener unevenly distributed and the drink poorly chilled.
“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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