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Sauce

Golden Sauce

A sweet sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, wine, cream, nutmeg, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Golden Sauce

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 ↓

Golden Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scald the cream in a two-quart basin over boiling water.

  2. Beat the butter, sugar, and egg yolks together.

  3. Add the nutmeg to the mixture.

  4. Pour the hot cream over the mixture.

  5. Place the basin over boiling water, add the wine, and stir until it thickens.

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 + 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. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and helps the sauce feel creamy.
Cream
Contributes moisture and richness, softening the sauce into a silky texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the butter and yolks.
Wine
Adds acidity and flavor, brightening the rich custard base.

The step that matters

Stir over boiling water until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but too much heat scrambles them into lumps. Keep the basin over simmering water, not boiling, and stir constantly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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