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Dessert

Wine Sauce

A sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, boiling water, brandy, nutmeg, and lemon or orange juice and rind.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon 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 ↓

Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar until light and creamy.

  2. Gradually add the boiling water and brandy, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the grated nutmeg and the juice and rind of the lemon or orange.

  4. For best results, mix the sauce in an earthenware bowl set in a pan of hot water.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Beaten with sugar, it traps air and gives the sauce a light, creamy body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the butter for a fine texture.
Boiling water
Loosens the creamed mixture and helps the sugar dissolve into a smooth sauce.
Brandy
Adds its own alcoholic aroma and flavour to the sauce.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour.
Lemon or orange
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water and brandy gradually. Adding the liquid slowly lets the creamed butter and sugar absorb it evenly and stay smooth. Pouring it in all at once can make the mixture separate or look grainy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, brandy, nutmeg. 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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