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Egg Nog

Fried mushroom balls coated in breadcrumbs, served with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Egg Nog

Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Egg Nog

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mushroom base

  1. Lightly fry the mushrooms in the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour and add the milk; boil well.

  3. Add the eggs, season with salt, and mix in the nutmeg over the fire.

  4. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape into balls or corks, coat with egg, and cover with Florador or breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat until golden brown.

  3. Drain well and serve garnished with fried parsley.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that softens the mushrooms and adds rich flavour to the base.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stiff mixture that holds its shape when cooled.
Milk
Liquid that cooks with the flour into a thick, creamy binder.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, helping the balls hold together.

The step that matters

Spread the mixture on a plate to cool. The mixture must cool and firm enough to shape; if it is still warm and soft, the balls may slump or split and fall apart in the hot fat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, flour, milk, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, flour, milk, egg, nutmeg. 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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