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Frozen Eggnog

A chilled custard made from milk, egg yolks, sugar, thick cream, and brandy, folded with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Frozen Eggnog

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, egg yolks, and sugar in a saucepan to make a boiled custard.

  2. Once thickened, let the custard cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Whip the thick cream until stiff peaks form.

  2. Freeze the custard, then fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Just before serving, add brandy to taste.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Thick cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds air and a light, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens with the yolks.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard to thicken. Egg yolks must be heated gently and stirred until thickened; overheating can scramble them into lumps. Once cooled and frozen, the custard's smooth texture depends on this thickening.

“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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