Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Drink for Invalids
Ingredients
Directions
Separate the egg and beat the yolk with the sugar until very light.
Pour a little wine over the mixture while stirring continuously.
Add the well-beaten egg white and mix gently.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together9,581 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + winetop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Yolk and white add richness and a light, airy body when the white is beaten in.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the drink and helps the yolk beat to a light, thick texture.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and flavour, thinning the mixture as it is stirred in.
The step that matters
Pouring in the wine while stirring. Adding wine slowly and stirring constantly keeps the yolk mixture smooth; dumping it in at once can cause the egg to thin unevenly or curdle.
“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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