Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Cream the butter until very light and delicate.
Add the sugar and beat until perfectly light and white.
In a shallow pan, bring water to a boil.
Set the bowl with the butter and sugar mixture in the boiling water to heat.
Just before serving, add the boiling water to the sauce and stir well.
Stir the mixture in the pan until it dissolves into a thick foam.
Flavor and serve
If using wine, heat it separately with the water before adding to the sauce.
For lemon flavor, add lemon essence or steep grated lemon rind in the wine before straining it into the sauce.
Strain the lemon juice into the sauce.
For a simple version, garnish with grated nutmeg after pouring into a serving dish.
Optionally, beat cream with the butter and sugar mixture before melting.
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.
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 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
- Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body when creamed and melted into the sauce.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, and beating it with butter traps air for a light texture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a softer, more velvety texture to the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and gives a fresh flavor.
- Wine
- Adds aroma and flavor depth to the sauce.
The step that matters
Heating the butter and sugar over boiling water. Gentle heat melts the butter and sugar into a smooth, emulsified sauce. Too much heat can make the butter separate and turn greasy, so the bowl should only warm the mixture.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, wine, nutmeg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, wine, nutmeg, cream. 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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