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-nogg
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.
Mix in the granulated sugar and then add the milk.
Stir well and add the brandy.
Finish and serve
Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Beat the remaining egg whites with powdered sugar to form a meringue.
Spoon the meringue on top of each serving of egg nog.
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.
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 yolks
- Enrich the custard-like body and add richness and emulsifying structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam that lightens the drink and forms the meringue topping.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the base and helps the yolks blend smoothly.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid body of the drink and adds creaminess.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavor and gives the drink its spirited character.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites until stiff. Whites must be beaten to stiff peaks to trap air; under-whipped whites deflate when folded in, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.
“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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