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Cream Nectar

A sweet punch made from sugar, tartaric acid, water, egg whites, lemon, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cream Nectar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 6 pounds of refined sugar, 4 ounces of tartaric acid, and 2 quarts of warm water in a pot.

  2. Add the beaten whites of 4 eggs, stirring gently to avoid boiling.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Flavour with lemon

  1. Rub the outsides of 3 lemons with lumps of loaf sugar until yellow.

  2. Add the sugar lumps to a bowl.

  3. Roll the lemons.

  4. Cut the lemons in half.

  5. Squeeze the juice over the sugar.

  6. Bruise the sugar.

  7. Mix the bruised sugar with the lemon pulp and juice.

Finish the punch

  1. Gradually add hot water to thin the syrup enough to strain it.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Taste the mixture.

  4. Add more sugar if it is sour.

  5. When cold, mix in equal parts of cold water, French brandy, and Jamaica rum 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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Refined sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the syrup that balances the sourness.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Lemons
Peel oils add aroma and the juice adds acidity.
French brandy
Adds aroma and warmth from its alcohol and flavour compounds.
Jamaica rum
Adds aroma and a rich, sweet flavour along with alcohol.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg whites gently. Letting the mixture boil can set the egg white into cloudy clumps that are hard to strain out. Gentle stirring keeps the syrup clear and easier to strain.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, brandy, rum. 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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