Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cream Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the tartaric acid, water, and sugar together for five minutes.
Allow the mixture to cool nearly to room temperature.
Flavor and bottle
Add the well-beaten egg whites and wintergreen flavor.
Bottle the mixture and keep it in a cool place.
Use 2 tablespoons of the mixture for each tumbler.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tartaric acid
- Provides the sharp, tangy acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the syrup, and helps preserve it.
- Egg whites
- Whip into foam when beaten, adding light body and a creamy head to the drink.
- Wintergreen
- Supplies the main aroma and flavor of the drink.
The step that matters
Cool the syrup before adding the egg whites. Hot syrup would partly cook the well-beaten egg whites, so they would not blend evenly or hold their foam. Cooling nearly to room temperature keeps them smooth and light.
“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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