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Sauce

Foamy Brandy Sauce

A light, airy sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, egg whites, and brandy.

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 ↓

Foamy Brandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat.

  2. Place the mixture over hot water.

  3. Add the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating until well blended with a wire whisk.

Finish the sauce

  1. Cool the mixture.

  2. Add the brandy, salt, and beaten cream.

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. Cream + brandytop 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
Provides richness and a smooth, fatty body that carries the sugar and other flavors.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the creamed butter, giving a fine texture.
Egg whites
Beaten to a foam, they add lightness and airy volume to the sauce.
Heavy cream
Whipped, it adds moisture and a light, creamy texture to the finished sauce.
Brandy
Contributes the main aroma and warm, spirited flavor.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture.. Whipped cream and beaten egg whites lose volume in warm liquid, so the sauce must be cooled before the cream is added to keep it light and foamy.

“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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