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Drink

Eggnog

A chilled beverage made with egg yolk, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla or nutmeg, and folded beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Eggnog

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Separate the egg and beat the yolk well.

  2. Add salt, half of the sugar, and the flavoring to the yolk. Beat until light.

  3. Beat the egg white until stiff, then add the remaining sugar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fold half of the beaten egg white into the yolk mixture.

  2. Mix with the milk and pour into a glass.

  3. Top with the remaining egg white and serve.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
The yolk enriches the drink and the whipped white lightens its body and adds foam.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy moisture of the drink.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps the egg white hold its stiff foam.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white until stiff. Egg white must be whipped until it forms firm peaks so it holds air and stays foamy on top. Under-beaten white collapses into the drink, and over-beaten white becomes dry and grainy, so stop once the peaks stand up firmly.

“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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