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Drink

To Mull Wine

A warm drink made by heating milk and wine, sweetened, spiced with nutmeg, and thickened with beaten egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

To Mull Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the new milk and wine in a saucepan.

  2. Sweeten to taste and add grated nutmeg.

  3. Heat the mixture until warm, but do not boil.

Add the eggs

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs with a little wine in a bowl.

  2. Slowly add the egg mixture to the warm milk and wine, stirring continuously.

  3. Pour the mixture back and forth between two containers to create froth.

  4. Heat gently until hot.

Serve

  1. Serve in a bowl with toast on the side.

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. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

Nutmeg and egg 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

New milk
Forms the creamy body of the drink and carries the other flavours.
Wine
Adds acidity and its own flavour, and thins the custard-like mixture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm liquid through protein setting and add richness and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the wine's acidity.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the warm liquid. Egg yolks set and curdle if they get too hot or are added too quickly. Slowly adding the warm mixture while stirring tempers the yolks, so the drink thickens smoothly instead of turning grainy. Keep the heat gentle and avoid boiling.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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