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Egg Drinks

A chilled cocktail made with claret syrup, lime juice, egg, cracked ice, soda water, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Egg Drinks

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine claret syrup, lime juice, and the egg in a 12-oz glass.

  2. Add cracked ice and shake well until the egg is beaten.

  3. Fill the glass with soda water.

  4. Gently toss without spilling and top with nutmeg.

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. Lime + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Syrup + nutmegtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together523 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Syrup + limetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Syrup + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Gives the drink body and a frothy, silky texture when shaken.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweet syrup.
Claret syrup
Provides sweetness and the main flavour of the drink.
Soda water
Adds lightness and fizz, diluting the drink.
Cracked ice
Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly while shaking.

The step that matters

Shaking until the egg is beaten. The shaking must break up the egg and mix it thoroughly with the cold liquid. Under-shaking leaves the egg streaky and unfoamed, so the drink lacks its smooth, frothy texture.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, egg, nutmeg. 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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