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Dessert

Brandy Sauce

A custard-like sauce made with butter, sugar, brandy, egg yolks, cream, and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the granulated sugar, mixing until light.

Make the custard

  1. Slowly add the brandy.

  2. Mix in the beaten yolks of the eggs.

  3. Stir in the cream.

  4. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens like custard.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the beaten egg whites.

  2. Serve hot with any hot pudding.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce base.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps the butter whip to a light texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving a custard texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sauce's body.
Brandy
Adds a distinct aroma and warm flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook in the double boiler until it thickens like custard. Egg yolk proteins set around moderate heat and thicken the sauce. Too much heat scrambles the yolks into lumps, so the mixture should be heated gently and stirred while it thickens.

“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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