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Boston Cream Nectar

A sweet, tart beverage made from boiled water, sugar, tartaric acid, lemon essence, egg whites, and bicarbonate of soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Boston Cream Nectar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 5 quarts of water with 4 pounds of granulated sugar.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Finish the nectar

  1. Add 4 ounces of tartaric acid and 2 tablespoons of lemon essence.

  2. Stir in the beaten whites of 6 eggs.

  3. Bottle the mixture for use.

Serve

  1. Mix 3 tablespoons of the nectar with a glass of water.

  2. Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the glass.

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

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. 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

Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the syrup base of the drink.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity and supplies the acid that reacts with the soda.
Egg whites
Add foam and a light, frothy texture to the mixture.
Bicarbonate of soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, creating fizz when added to the glass.
Lemon essence
Contributes citrus aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the glass. Bicarbonate of soda reacts immediately with the tartaric acid in the nectar to release carbon dioxide. Too much will foam over and taste soapy, so use only a pinch and drink right away before the fizz fades.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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