Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Egg Flip
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the egg white until stiff.
Sprinkle the white pepper over the beaten egg white.
Pour the boiling milk over the egg white while stirring vigorously.
Add sugar to taste and serve.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,312 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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White pepper + milktop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,304 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 white
- Whipped to stiff foam, it gives the drink its light, airy, frothy texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and body, and gently cooks the egg white when poured in hot.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling milk over the egg white while stirring. Stirring vigorously spreads the hot milk evenly so the egg white warms and sets into fine strands rather than clumping into lumps.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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