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Dessert

Frozen Egg-nog

A chilled egg‑nog made with milk, spices, egg yolks, sugar, cream, rum, and cognac.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Frozen Egg-nog

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until thick and light, then gradually add the sugar.

  3. Add salt and nutmeg, strain the spices from the milk, and pour the milk slowly into the egg mixture while beating.

  4. Cook over hot water until the mixture coats the spoon, stirring constantly.

Freeze and serve

  1. Remove from heat and cool, then add the thick cream and freeze until mushy.

  2. Slowly mix in the rum and cognac, then finish freezing.

  3. Serve in tall stem glasses.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they cook and coat the spoon.
Thick cream
Adds fat and a smooth, rich texture to the frozen mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps keep the frozen texture soft.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken into custard.
Rum
Adds flavor and lowers the freezing point, keeping the mixture softer.
Cognac
Adds flavor and lowers the freezing point, keeping the mixture softer.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over hot water. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Cooking gently over hot water and stirring constantly keeps it smooth until it coats the spoon.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cinnamon, allspice, egg, sugar, nutmeg, cream):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, allspice, egg, sugar, nutmeg, cream. 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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