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Drink

Egg Nog

Egg Nog is a beverage made with eggs, sugar, whiskey, nutmeg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Egg Nog

Why it works: Nutmeg and milk 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 Nog

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the sugar and dissolve it completely.

  3. Gradually pour in the whiskey while stirring.

  4. Add the grated nutmeg and milk, mixing well.

Fold in and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.

  2. Gently stir the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Serve in glasses with a straw.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the drink, while whipped whites add a light, foamy texture.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the alcohol and richness.
Whiskey
Provides the main alcoholic flavour and aroma.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Rich milk
Supplies moisture and creaminess to the body of the drink.

The step that matters

Gently stir the beaten egg whites into the mixture. Beaten egg whites hold air in a foam. Stirring them gently keeps that air trapped, so the nog stays light and frothy instead of flattening into a dense, flat liquid.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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