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A Very Strengthening Drink

A warm drink made with egg yolk, sugar, wine or brandy, egg white, milk, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Very Strengthening Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a tumbler, beat the egg yolk with sugar.

  2. Add the wine or brandy and mix well.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until frothy.

  2. Gently stir the frothy egg white into the yolk mixture.

  3. Fill the tumbler with new milk and grate a little nutmeg on top.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Wine + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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 a smooth, creamy body to the drink.
Egg white
Whipped to a froth, it lightens the texture and adds a airy foam.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps balance the richness of the egg.
Wine or brandy
Adds aroma and flavour and a gentle warming note.
Milk
Forms the liquid body of the drink and adds creaminess.

The step that matters

Gently stir the frothy egg white into the yolk mixture. Whipped egg white holds air in a fragile foam. Stirring too vigorously knocks out the air, so the drink loses its light, frothy texture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, wine, 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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