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Drink

Egg-wine

A warm drink made by whisking an egg with wine, water, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Egg-wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg wine

  1. Beat the egg and mix it with cold water.

  2. In a saucepan, combine white wine, water, sugar, and nutmeg; bring to a boil.

  3. Gradually pour a little of the hot mixture into the egg, stirring well.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat gently, stirring continuously for no more than 1 minute.

Serve

  1. Serve with toast.

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. White wine + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

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

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

  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Thickens the warm wine mixture into a light, creamy custard as it gently cooks.
White wine
Provides the main liquid and a light acidic, fruity flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the wine.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the egg mixture gently. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot or is heated too long. Adding hot liquid slowly and stirring constantly tempers the egg, and keeping the final heating brief keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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