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Drink

Cream Nectar

A sweet, effervescent drink made from sugar, tartaric acid, water, egg whites, lemon essence, syrup, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cream Nectar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 6 pounds refined sugar, 4 ounces tartaric acid, and 2 quarts water in a pot.

  2. Heat gently without boiling.

  3. Add beaten egg whites and stir until well combined.

  4. Allow mixture to cool.

  5. Strain it.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon essence of lemon to the strained syrup.

Serve

  1. Mix 2 tablespoons syrup with a glass filled two-thirds with water.

  2. Add a very small quantity carbonate of soda and stir until it effervesces.

  3. Drink immediately.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Refined sugar
Provides the sweetness and bulk of the syrup.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and reacts with the carbonate of soda.
Egg whites
Beaten egg whites are stirred in to clarify and lighten the syrup.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, producing fizz.

The step that matters

Add the carbonate of soda in a very small quantity. Carbonate of soda reacts with tartaric acid immediately, releasing carbon dioxide. Too much at once can cause overflow or an overly harsh, soapy taste, so it should be added sparingly and drunk right away before the fizz fades.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, syrup. 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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