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Drink

Tom and Jerry

A hot alcoholic drink made with egg, sugar, brandy, rum, and hot milk or water, garnished with nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Tom and Jerry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Separate the egg and beat the yolk until stiff with sugar.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg white.

  3. Stir in the brandy and rum.

Serve

  1. Pour into a glass and fill with hot milk or hot water.

  2. Grate nutmeg on top and serve immediately.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rum + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Beaten white adds air and a light, foamy texture, while the yolk adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps the beaten yolk hold its body.
Brandy
Adds warm, fruity aroma and flavor to the drink.
Rum
Adds sweet, round flavor and aroma alongside the brandy.
Hot milk
Provides the main liquid, adding creaminess and softness to the drink.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg white. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the beaten white, which gives the drink its light, foamy texture. Stirring or beating hard would knock out that air and leave the drink flat and dense.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, brandy, rum, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, brandy, rum, milk. 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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