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Sauce

Wine Sauce

A sweet sauce made with butter, sugar, egg, nutmeg, and sherry, thickened with cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Wine Sauce

Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cornstarch base

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold water, then cook in boiling water.

Make the butter mixture

  1. Beat the butter and powdered sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the egg and grated nutmeg to the mixture and beat well.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the hot cornstarch mixture over the sugar and egg mixture.

  2. Stir until smooth, then add the sherry.

  3. Serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, glossy sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the creamed butter.
Egg
Enriches the sauce and adds body to the mixture.
Sherry
Adds a distinct aroma and wine-like flavor to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Pour the hot cornstarch mixture over the sugar and egg mixture. Cornstarch thickens only when it is hot and gelatinizes during cooking. Pouring it in while hot and stirring until smooth keeps the sauce even and prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, sherry. 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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