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Drink

Egg-nogg

A rich, sweet milk beverage made with egg yolks, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Egg-nogg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Stir the egg yolks with the sugar until thick.

  2. Gradually add the milk and brandy, mixing well.

  3. Add the grated nutmeg.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

  2. In winter, you may heat the milk and serve it hot.

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 + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

Egg and nutmeg 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 yolks
Add richness and body, and help thicken the base as they are stirred with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps the yolks thicken when stirred together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and gives the drink its creamy body.
Brandy
Adds its distinctive flavour and aroma to the drink.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they make the drink lighter and airier when folded in.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Stiff egg white foam traps air, which lightens the drink. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves the eggnog heavy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, brandy. 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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