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Drink

Egg Cordial

A chilled drink made with egg yolk, sugar, wine or whiskey, milk, and folded egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Egg Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a goblet, beat the egg yolk with the sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the wine or whiskey and fill the goblet half full with milk.

Top and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until very light and fluffy.

  2. Gently place the beaten egg white on top of the mixture in the goblet.

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 + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Wine + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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

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

  5. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 yolk
Adds richness and body, and helps bind the sugar and liquid smoothly.
White sugar
Sweetens the drink and blends into the beaten yolk.
Wine or whiskey
Adds flavour and an aromatic note to the drink.
Milk
Makes up most of the drink, adding creaminess and mild richness.
Egg white
Whipped into foam, it adds air and a light, fluffy layer on top.

The step that matters

Gently placing the beaten egg white on top. Beaten egg white is a foam of trapped air held by proteins. Pouring or stirring it vigorously breaks those bubbles, so it sinks into the milk instead of floating as a light layer.

“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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