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Drink

Vinegar and Lemon Mtieys

A milk-based drink made by curdling boiling milk with vinegar or lemon juice, then diluted with hot water and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vinegar and Lemon Mtieys

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour vinegar or lemon juice into boiling milk until it becomes clear.

  2. Dilute with hot water to achieve a pleasant acidity.

  3. Add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar to taste.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + vinegartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the base; its proteins curdle when acid is added, separating clear liquid from solids.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that curdles the milk protein and gives the drink its sour taste.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sourness.

The step that matters

Adding the acid to the boiling milk. Acid should be added gradually until the liquid clears. Too much acid makes the drink harsh, and hot water is then needed to dilute it back to a pleasant acidity.

“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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