Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mock Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the arrow-root with a small quantity of the boiling milk until smooth.
Stir the mixture into the remaining boiling milk.
Beat the egg white until stiff and add it when the mixture is half cold.
Place the mixture over low heat until it nearly boils, then strain before serving.
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 + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Forms the body of the cream and carries the thickened, creamy texture.
- Arrow-root
- Starch that thickens the boiling milk as it cooks into a smooth cream.
- Egg white
- Beaten until stiff, it lightens the cream and adds an airy texture.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg white. Stiffly beaten egg white traps air and gives lift, but it deflates if added while the mixture is still too hot. Letting the mixture cool to half cold before folding it in keeps the foam stable.
“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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