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Egg Flip

A cocktail made with egg, lemon syrup, orange syrup, phosphate, soda water, and grated nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Egg Flip

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Egg Flip

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a shaker, combine the egg, lemon syrup, orange syrup, and phosphate.

  2. Shake well and fill a glass with soda water.

  3. Pour the mixture from one glass to another.

  4. Top with grated 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.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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
Adds body and a silky, creamy texture to the drink.
Lemon syrup
Provides sweetness and bright citrus acidity.
Orange syrup
Adds sweetness and a rounded citrus aroma.
Phosphate
Adds a sharp, tart note that balances the sweet syrups.

The step that matters

Shake well. Vigorous shaking breaks up the egg and blends it evenly with the syrups. This creates a smooth, frothy texture instead of separated egg and syrup.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raisinfits less well
  4. Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, syrup, 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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