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Drink

Christbcas Egg Nog

A festive drink made with egg yolks, powdered sugar, nutmeg, rum, brandy or Madeira, egg whites, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Christbcas Egg Nog

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar until creamy.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg and mix well.

  3. Stir in the Jamaica rum and brandy or Madeira wine.

Finish the eggnog

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the mixture.

  2. Finally, stir in the rich milk until well combined.

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. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Nutmeg + rumtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rum + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, emulsifying with the sugar to give a creamy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add a light, airy texture to the drink.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and dissolves easily into the beaten yolks.
Jamaica rum
Adds alcohol and aroma, and helps keep the drink from tasting flat.
Rich milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy mouthfeel of the eggnog.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that gives lightness. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently and keep the mixture airy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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