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Nutmeg Svrup

A sweet syrup made from nutmeg, water, liquor, sugar, egg, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,311 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Nutmeg Svrup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the syrup

  1. Pound the nutmeg and place it in a saucepan.

  2. Add hot water and boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan.

  4. Add liquor, sifted sugar, and the egg beaten with a little cold water.

  5. Heat over medium heat until boiling, skimming until perfectly clean.

  6. Reduce to a good syrup consistency.

Finish

  1. Once cool, mix in the brandy.

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. Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

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

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

Nutmeg and egg 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

Nutmeg
Provides the main warm, aromatic flavour of the syrup.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and, once reduced, body to the syrup.
Egg
When beaten into the hot mixture, its proteins coagulate and help bind and clarify the syrup as it is skimmed.
Brandy
Adds alcoholic aroma and flavour to the finished syrup.

The step that matters

Skimming until perfectly clean. Egg proteins coagulate as the mixture heats and trap impurities on the surface. If skimming is incomplete, the syrup stays cloudy and can taste muddy, so the foam must be removed as it forms.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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