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Drink

Caudle

A warm, sweetened drink made from fine gruel, butter, brandy, wine, capillaire, lemon peel, nutmeg, egg, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Caudle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the fine gruel with butter until melted.

  2. Add brandy, white wine, capillaire, lemon peel, and nutmeg.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with sugar and cold water.

  4. While the gruel is hot, mix in the egg mixture gradually.

  5. Serve warm.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the warm liquid as it cooks gently, giving the caudle a smooth, body-rich texture.
Fine gruel
Forms the thin oat base that carries the other flavours and gives the drink its body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the wine, brandy and lemon peel.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the base.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg mixture gradually. Adding the beaten egg slowly to hot liquid, while stirring, tempers it so the egg thickens smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, brandy, white wine, lemon, 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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