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Egg Beaten Up with Brandy, Wine, or Milk

A beverage made by beating an egg with sugar, milk, and brandy or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Egg Beaten Up with Brandy, Wine, or Milk

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break the egg and remove the speck.

  2. Mix the egg with sugar and salt until well combined, but not frothy.

  3. Add the warm milk and brandy or sherry.

  4. Strain into a soda-water glass 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. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 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
Provides protein and richness, giving the drink body and a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, diluting the egg into a smooth, drinkable liquid.
Brandy or sherry
Adds aroma and warmth of flavour that balances the sweetness of the drink.
White sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the alcohol and the richness of the egg and milk.

The step that matters

Mix the egg with sugar and salt until well combined, but not frothy.. Beating the egg only until combined keeps the drink smooth. Over-whisking traps air and creates foam, which makes the texture light and frothy rather than silky.

“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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