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Milk Punch

Milk Punch is a hot beverage made with milk, egg yolks, powdered sugar, sherry wine, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks well.

  3. Mix the powdered sugar with the sherry wine.

  4. Pour the sherry mixture into a pitcher.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the boiling milk to the pitcher while stirring rapidly.

  2. Transfer the mixture back and forth between two pitchers several times.

  3. Spice with nutmeg to taste and serve 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. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the punch its body and creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the punch as they are gently heated by the milk.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the sherry.
Sherry wine
Provides the main flavour and a light acidity that balances the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling milk while stirring rapidly. Pouring hot milk onto yolks or into the mixture too slowly, or without constant stirring, can cause the egg to curdle. Rapid stirring spreads the heat evenly so the punch stays smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

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