Why it works: Milk and white wine work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 929 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓
Wine Whey
Ingredients
Directions
Curdle the milk
Heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan until it boils.
Pour in white wine until the milk curdles.
Boil briefly, then let the curds settle.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture to separate the curds from the whey.
Add a little boiling water and sweeten with sugar to taste.
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.
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Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together929 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Milk
- Its proteins form the curds when acid is added and heat is applied.
- White wine
- Its acidity makes the milk proteins clump, separating curds from liquid whey.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the wine.
The step that matters
Adding the wine until the milk curdles. Acid causes milk proteins to clump, but adding too much wine makes the whey taste sour and harsh. Add it gradually and stop once the milk has curdled.
“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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