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Sauces for Ice Cream

A ginger-flavored sauce made with corn starch, lemon juice, ginger, butter, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sauces for Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dilute two teaspoonfuls of corn starch with water.

  2. Stir in one-fourth cup of brandy, one-fourth cup of ginger syrup, and two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice.

  3. Cook for five minutes.

  4. Add one-fourth cup of finely chopped ginger, a few gratings from the rind of a lemon, and one teaspoonful of butter.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

571Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
99 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 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

Corn starch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when heated.
Ginger
Provides the main flavor and aroma of the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet ginger flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook for five minutes after adding the starch mixture. Corn starch only thickens fully when heated to a simmer, and it needs to cook long enough to lose its raw starchy taste. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and floury.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, lemon, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, lemon, butter. 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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