Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Cream Soda Without the Fountain
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Mix coffee sugar, water, nutmegs, egg whites, gum arabic, and lemon oil in a pot.
Heat over a gentle fire, stirring for about 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and strain the mixture.
Divide the strained mixture into two parts.
Prepare the two halves
Add 8 ounces of bicarbonate of soda to one half and 6 ounces of tartaric acid to the other half.
Shake both mixtures well and let them cool.
Serve
Pour 3 or 4 spoonfuls from each part into separate glasses filled one-third with water.
Stir each glass.
Pour them together to enjoy your cream soda.
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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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 whites
- Help clarify the syrup and add foam and body to the drink.
- Gum arabic
- Acts as an emulsifier and stabilizer, helping the flavour stay suspended and the foam hold.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with tartaric acid to release carbon dioxide, making the drink fizz.
- Tartaric acid
- Reacts with bicarbonate of soda to release carbon dioxide and adds a tart bite.
- Coffee sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the syrup.
The step that matters
Keeping the two halves separate until serving. Bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid react as soon as they meet in liquid, releasing carbon dioxide. If they are combined early, the fizz is lost before the drink is poured, so each half must stay apart until the glasses are mixed.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, sugar, nutmeg, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, nutmeg, egg. 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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