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Egg and Port Wine

A simple drink made with egg, port wine, water, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Egg and Port Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg with cold water.

  2. Add the Port wine and grated nutmeg to the mixture.

Heat and serve

  1. In a saucepan, heat the sugar until hot.

  2. Stir in the egg mixture carefully.

  3. Pour the mixture into a glass and serve with a cracker.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Port wine + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together462 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together805 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 richness to the drink.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, fruity depth and a warming aroma.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the wine.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, spiced aroma.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg mixture carefully. Egg proteins set when heated too quickly, which can curdle the mixture into lumps. Adding it gradually while stirring gently keeps it smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, port wine, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, port wine, sugar. 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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