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Sleeper, an American Drink

A rum-based cocktail made with powdered sugar, eggs, lemon juice, spices, and water, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sleeper, an American Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the rum, powdered sugar, egg yolks, and lemon juice.

  2. Boil the spices in ½ pint of water, then strain the liquid into the bowl.

Mix and serve

  1. Whisk all ingredients together until frothy.

  2. Pour the drink into glasses while hot.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 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

Old rum
Provides the spirit base and most of the drink's alcoholic body and flavour.
Eggs
Egg yolks add richness and, when whisked, create a frothy, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cold-mixed liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, sweet flavours of the drink.

The step that matters

Whisk all ingredients together until frothy. Egg yolks must be beaten thoroughly with the liquids so they emulsify and foam evenly; under-whisking leaves a thin, uneven drink with streaks of yolk.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, sugar, egg, lemon, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, sugar, egg, lemon, clove, cinnamon. 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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