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Drink

Ale Flip

A frothy ale-based drink made with eggs, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Ale Flip

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the strong ale in a pot until it reaches boiling point.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and egg whites until frothy.

  3. Gradually mix in the Lisbon sugar and grated nutmeg.

Make the flip

  1. Slowly pour the hot ale into the egg mixture while beating continuously.

  2. Pour the mixture rapidly from one jug to another to froth it up.

  3. Continue until the mixture is smooth and foaming.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately while hot.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Strong ale
Provides the liquid base and bitter, malty flavour, and its heat thickens the eggs.
Egg yolks
Set with the heat to thicken and enrich the drink, giving it a smooth body.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, creating the frothy, foamy texture.
Lisbon sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the ale.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot ale into the egg mixture while beating continuously. Pouring hot liquid onto eggs too fast can scramble the yolks in lumps. Adding it slowly while beating gently tempers the eggs, so the mixture thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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