Tamagozake – Traditional Recipe

What Does The Tamagozake Taste Like?

The Tamagozake is a Japanese cold remedy drink like how the hot toddy is in the United States. While I love hot toddies, I’m not the biggest fan of this drink. It’s both sweet and quite tart, and the flavor is not to my liking. I tried making this several times with slightly different proportions, and this is the best I could come up with. Maybe it’s because I’m not the biggest fan of sake, and this drink would taste better with another wine or spirit, but it’s an acquired taste. Don’t get me wrong; I bet if I was sick and a sweet little Japanese grandma made me this, it would be amazing. Unfortunately, as a man in his mid-30s, I do not possess that level of supreme skill yet, but it does give me a new cocktail to practice getting better with. I will provide what I believe to be the standard traditional recipe. No one can cook as well as a grandma.

How To Prepare A Tamagozake Properly.

To make this cocktail, you should be familiar with tempering, and you must have a whisk and a heat-proof container with a handle (a basic coffee mug works). Tempering combines two ingredients of different temperatures, where the colder ingredient cooks at a low temperature. The goal is to combine the two without cooking the colder ingredient. In this case, you are adding hot sake to cold eggs to gradually increase the temperature of the eggs without cooking them. You do that by having one hand whisk, the other hand slowly pour, the bowl staying in place.

1. Whisk the egg and sugar till the mixture has thinned out and runs loose. Like a really well-mixed egg for scrambled eggs.
2. While whisking very slowly pour the hot sake into the egg mix.
3. Continue pouring at a constant rate till the sake and egg are mixed together.
4. The final result should be a light semi-opaque yellow with a small foam on top. Like the photo.

You can’t add a hot liquid to eggs without cooking them. The egg parts the liquid first touches will absorb most of that heat, but constantly agitating the mixture prevents the cooked egg proteins from bonding together and forming clumps.