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Drink

Egg Cream

A chilled beverage made with egg, sugar, cream, and black cherry wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Egg Cream

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the raw egg until stiff froth forms.

  2. Add the sugar, cream, and black cherry wine.

  3. Beat thoroughly and serve immediately.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cherry + winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Sugar + cherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,598 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg
Its proteins trap air as it beats, forming the foam that gives the drink its light head.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the foam.
Cream
Adds fat and body, giving the drink a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
Black cherry wine
Adds fruity flavour and aroma, along with its acidity.

The step that matters

Beat the raw egg until stiff froth forms. Egg proteins unfold and trap air when beaten. Stopping too early gives a thin, flat foam that collapses quickly, so the drink lacks its characteristic head.

Swap the cherry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, 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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