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Drink

Drink for a Cold

A sweetened egg, milk, and water mixture boiled and served as a cold remedy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Drink for a Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg for 15 minutes.

  2. Combine the beaten egg with milk and water.

  3. Sweeten with granulated sugar.

Heat and serve

  1. Bring the mixture to a boiling point.

  2. Allow to cool and serve as a drink.

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 + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and sugar 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
When heated, its proteins set and thicken the liquid, giving the drink body.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the drink.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the drink.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boiling point.. Egg proteins set when heated, and high heat or fast boiling can make the egg curdle or turn grainy. Heating gently while stirring keeps 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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