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Drink

Egg Lemonade

A chilled drink made with egg, lemon juice, water, sugar, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Egg Lemonade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Thoroughly beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Sweeten the mixture to taste with sugar.

  3. Add the juice of the lemon and the water.

Chill and serve

  1. Stir in cracked ice.

  2. Beat thoroughly again or shake in a shaker.

  3. For a twist, add pineapple juice or grated pineapple.

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 + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 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).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg
When beaten, it adds body and a light, frothy texture to the drink.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that makes the drink taste like lemonade.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart lemon and balances its acidity.
Water
Dilutes the mixture to a drinkable strength.
Cracked ice
Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly as it melts.

The step that matters

Beat thoroughly again or shake in a shaker. The egg must be fully beaten into the liquid so it disperses evenly instead of leaving streaks or clumps. Vigorous beating or shaking with ice also aerates the drink and chills it well.

Swap the pineapple

The recipe marks pineapple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon. 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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