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Dessert

Wine Froth, for Dessert

A frothy dessert made from wine, egg yolks, lemon peel, sugar, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Wine Froth, for Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the froth

  1. In a deep saucepan, combine the egg yolks and wine over medium heat.

  2. Add the grated lemon peel and sugar to taste.

  3. Beat the mixture with a whisk until it becomes a thick froth.

Fold in the whites and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently stir the beaten egg whites into the frothy mixture.

  3. Continue whisking until the froth thickens.

  4. Pour the froth into cups or glasses and let it cool slightly if using glasses.

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. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  5. Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 yolks
Thicken the wine as they heat, creating a rich, custard-like froth.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy volume that lightens the froth.
Wine
Provides the liquid base and its flavour for the froth.
Sugar
Sweetens the froth and balances the acidity of the wine and lemon.

The step that matters

Heating the yolk and wine mixture. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat but can scramble if overheated. Keep the heat moderate and keep whisking so the yolks cook smoothly into a froth rather than curdling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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