Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Milk Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Boil the skim milk with salt or brown sugar.
Place the bread slices in a tureen and pour some hot milk over them.
Let stand near the fire for 5 minutes.
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the remaining milk.
Heat until thickened, then remove from heat.
Make the refined version
For a refined version, boil 3 pints of milk with lemon zest, coriander, cinnamon, and sugar until reduced by half.
Strain the refined mixture through a tammy.
Proceed as before.
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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Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,498 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,635 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk as they heat, giving the soup a creamy body.
- Bread
- Soaks up hot milk and gives the soup substance and body.
- Skim milk
- Forms the liquid base of the soup.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the refined version.
The step that matters
Heating the egg yolks until thickened. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle and turn grainy. Heat gently and stop once it thickens.
Swap the coriander
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, bread, egg, lemon, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Corianderthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, bread, egg, lemon, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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