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White Wine Whey

A whey drink made by curdling skimmed milk with white wine, boiled water, sugar, and a sprig of balm or lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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White Wine Whey

Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

White Wine Whey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the whey

  1. In a large bowl, combine the skimmed milk and white wine.

  2. Let it sit for a few minutes.

  3. Pour in the boiling water and let it stand until the curd forms and settles at the bottom.

  4. Pour the whey into a china bowl.

Flavour and serve

  1. Add a lump of sugar and a sprig of balm or a slice of lemon.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Skimmed milk
Its milk proteins curdle when acid and heat are applied, forming the curd that separates from the whey.
White wine
Its acidity curdles the milk, separating the curd from the clear liquid whey.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the wine and lemon.

The step that matters

Pour in the boiling water and let it stand until the curd settles. The milk must be fully curdled before the whey is poured off. Pouring too early leaves the curd cloudy and unseparated, so the whey will not run clear.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, white wine, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, white wine, sugar. 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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