Name: Egg and Wine
Ingredients: 2 eggs; ⅓ cup wine; whipped cream

Why it works: Wine and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,887 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Egg and Wine

Ingredients

2 eggs
⅓ cup wine
whipped cream

Directions

Boil the eggs for 5 minutes over boiling water.
Remove the eggs and beat them with a hand mixer until light and smooth.
Serve the beaten eggs with whipped cream heaped on top in a cup.

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.

Wine + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg + winetop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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: Form the base of the dish, and beating them incorporates air for a light, smooth texture.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a soft, airy topping through its fat and whipped air.

“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.