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Egg Phosphate

A chilled cocktail made with lemon syrup, phosphate, cherry syrup, egg, ice, soda, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Egg Phosphate

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a shaker, combine lemon syrup, phosphate, cherry syrup, and egg with cracked ice, then shake well.

  2. Fill the shaker with fine soda stream.

  3. Strain into a soda glass.

  4. Sprinkle ground nutmeg over the top.

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

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

  2. Cherry + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + cherrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 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
Its proteins trap air when shaken, creating a light, foamy body.
Lemon syrup
Adds sweetness and bright acidity that balance the drink.
Cherry syrup
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor, plus color.
Phosphate
Adds a tart, acidic bite that sharpens the sweet syrups.
Fine soda stream
Carbonation adds fizz and lightens the texture of the drink.

The step that matters

Shake well before adding the soda. Shaking with ice agitates the egg proteins, which unfold and trap air to form a foam. If the mixture is under-shaken, the egg stays unfoamed and the drink lacks body and a smooth texture.

Swap the cherry

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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