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Drink

Egg Wine

A sweet, nutmeg-flavored drink made by mixing beaten eggs with boiled water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Egg Wine

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

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs and mix with cold water.

  2. In a pan, bring 1½ cups of water to a boil with sugar and nutmeg.

Combine and heat

  1. Slowly pour the boiling mixture onto the eggs while stirring briskly.

  2. Return to the heat for 1 to 1½ minutes, stirring continuously without boiling.

Froth and serve

  1. Remove from heat and pour between vessels to froth.

  2. Serve in glasses with hot dry 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.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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

Eggs
Thicken gently when heated, giving the drink its body and creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the eggs.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Return to the heat without boiling. Egg proteins set gradually when heated gently, which thickens the drink smoothly. Boiling makes them tighten and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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