Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Whey
Ingredients
Directions
Curdle the milk
Heat the milk to about 200°F (93°C).
Remove from heat and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Let it stand for a few minutes.
Strain and serve
Beat with a fork and strain through cheesecloth.
Serve hot or cold.
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 + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Supplies the proteins that clump into soft curds, leaving the watery whey behind.
- Lemon juice
- Its acid lowers the milk's pH, causing the milk proteins to coagulate and separate.
The step that matters
Adding the lemon juice off the heat. Acid causes milk proteins to clump. Removing the milk from heat first keeps it from boiling and scorching, and lets the curds form gently instead of turning grainy or tough.
“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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