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Mulled Buttermilk

A warm beverage made by boiling buttermilk with egg yolk and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mulled Buttermilk

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg yolk in a bowl until well combined.

  2. Bring the buttermilk to a boil in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and allow to boil briefly.

  4. Mix the flour with a little cold buttermilk to create a thickening.

  5. Add the thickening to the boiling buttermilk.

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.

  1. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 yolk
Enriches the custard and thickens as its proteins set when heated.
Buttermilk
Forms the liquid base and gives a tangy, mildly sour flavour.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated with moisture.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolk and boil briefly. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the mixture overheats, so keep the heat controlled and stir constantly while it cooks.

“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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