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Drink

Koumiss

A fermented dairy drink made by mixing cream, buttermilk, new milk, and sugar, then fermenting and beating until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Koumiss

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the cream, buttermilk, new milk, and sugar together.

  2. Pour the mixture into a wooden vessel shaped like a churn.

  3. Place the churn in a warm corner of a room and cover it with a cloth.

Ferment and beat

  1. After 2-3 days, when it becomes slightly sour, beat the mixture with a strong stick until smooth.

  2. Continue beating daily until it thickens and is ready for use.

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. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

Buttermilk
Adds live cultures and acidity that start the fermentation and sourness.
Cream
Adds fat, giving the finished drink a richer, smoother texture.
New milk
Supplies the bulk of the liquid and milk proteins that thicken as it ferments.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and food for the cultures during fermentation.

The step that matters

Beating daily until it thickens. Beating breaks up curds and distributes the developing acid and cultures evenly, so the mixture thickens smoothly rather than separating into lumps.

“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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