Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
An Excellent Wine Sauce Fob Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Mix in the flour until thickened.
Add the sugar, salt, and wine. Mix well.
Beat the egg yolks.
Stir them into the sauce briskly.
Heat the sauce until just before simmering, but do not let it boil to avoid curdling.
Serve
Serve the sauce separately with plum, marrow, or bread puddings.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 and add richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the sauce a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the melted butter and wine into a smooth base.
- Sherry or madeira
- Provides the wine flavor and acidity that defines the sauce.
- Pounded sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the wine's acidity.
The step that matters
Heat the sauce until just before simmering. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat but curdle if the sauce boils. Stirring the yolks in briskly and keeping the heat below a simmer keeps the sauce smooth.
“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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