Name: Buttermilk, Artificial
Ingredients: 10 parts buttermilk powder; 1 part vinegar; 1 part syrup of buckthorn

Why it works: Buttermilk and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk, Artificial

Ingredients

10 parts buttermilk powder
1 part vinegar
1 part syrup of buckthorn

Directions

Dissolve the buttermilk powder in water.
Add the vinegar and syrup of buckthorn to the mixture.

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.

Buttermilk + syruptop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together124 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buttermilk + vinegartop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + syruptop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together385 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

Buttermilk powder: Provides milk solids and proteins that give the liquid a creamy body and tangy dairy flavor.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and mimics the tang of real buttermilk.
Syrup of buckthorn: Adds sweetness and a fruity flavor to balance the 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.