Name: Milk Paint
Ingredients: 2 quarts skim milk; 6.5 ounces fresh-slacked lime; 4 ounces linseed oil; 3 pounds whiting

Why it works: Milk and lime work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 700 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Milk Paint

Ingredients

2 quarts skim milk
6.5 ounces fresh-slacked lime
4 ounces linseed oil
3 pounds whiting

Directions

In a stone vessel, combine the lime with enough skim milk to form a mixture resembling thin cream.
Gradually add the linseed oil while stirring continuously.
Use the paint immediately, applying it with a brush.
For color, mix in any desired ochres.
After drying, polish with a wool cloth for a shiny finish.

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.

Milk + limetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together700 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + whitingtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together123 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lime + whitingtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).