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Drink

Egg-tea

A warm beverage made by whisking an egg with sugar, then adding boiling water and sherry, and stirring to prevent curdling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Egg-tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg very light and mix in sugar to taste.

  2. Pour the boiling water and sherry into the egg mixture.

  3. Quickly pour the mixture back and forth between two vessels to prevent curdling.

  4. Serve warm.

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

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

  2. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the drink lightly and gives it a rich, creamy body when beaten into the liquid.
Sherry or other liquor
Adds aroma and a warming, slightly sharp flavour that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Pouring back and forth between two vessels. Pouring the hot liquid onto beaten egg can scramble it into small curds. Pouring quickly between vessels cools and mixes the egg gently and evenly, keeping the drink smooth.

“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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