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Drink

Egg-nog

Egg Nog is a chilled beverage made with egg yolk, sugar, salt, sherry or port, milk, egg white, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Egg-nog

Why it works: Sherry and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Egg-nog

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the yolk of the egg slightly.

  2. Add the sugar and a small pinch of salt.

  3. Slowly add the sherry or port wine.

  4. Gradually pour in the cold milk and strain the mixture.

  5. Cover with the stiffly beaten egg white and sprinkle with grated nutmeg.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Egg yolk
Adds richness and emulsifies with the milk to give a smooth, creamy body.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that makes the drink thin and creamy.
Egg white
Stiffly beaten, it forms a light foam that sits on top of the drink.
Sherry or port wine
Adds flavor and a touch of acidity and alcohol to the drink.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the wine's tartness.

The step that matters

Pouring in the cold milk. Adding milk gradually while stirring keeps the yolk from clumping, so the drink stays smooth rather than curdled or grainy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, sherry, milk. 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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