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 ↓
Floating Island
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the milk in a boiler.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and spoon them onto the boiling milk, ensuring they can float.
Cook for 2 minutes, then turn each spoonful and cook the other side for another 2 minutes.
Lift the cooked egg whites with a skimmer and place them in a wide, shallow dish.
Repeat the process with the remaining egg whites.
Strain the milk, measure it, and add enough to make 1 pint.
Return the milk to the boiler and heat until scalding.
Make a soft custard with the egg yolks as in the previous recipe.
Pour the custard under the egg whites and chill in the ice chest before serving.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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